Omega
by Those-Who Walk-Alone
Summary: Anna's life in the military academy she trains in gets turned upside down by the arrival of a hyper-lethal vector with an affinity for ice. [Sci-Fi AU, rated M for potential content]
1. Prologue

**I took down this story a while back, because it had gone on the wrong direction from which I had originally intended. I've decided to get back to this, because I still like the universe a bit, so I guess we'll see where this goes from here.**

* * *

><p>Prologue<p>

**Sector ?, Division ?**

**1930 hours**

"Oracle, Strike-one is in position. Awaiting confirmation."

"Copy that Strike-one, we read you clear as day. Set up and wait for the convoy."

Kristoff deployed the tripod and planted it along the building ridge, sliding a fresh ammunition magazine into the ASR1 sniper rifle. His HUD's timer was ticking fast, so he didn't have much time. "Strike-one, set up and get ready. Convoy ETA is 3 minutes." He lifted the safety on the rifle and zeroed the scope, the HUD syncing with the rifle's onboard chip to align the targeting reticule to his vision.

"What the hell is so important in that convoy?" Flynn said, checking his rifle.

"We don't know. Intel didn't tell us. We got the EMP ready?"

Charles raised the device. "It's primed. Ready to go when we are."

"Grapples are ready." Nemo tossed out the grapple guns to his teammates, of which Kristoff grabbed one and attached to his belt. "Your suits should arm then with the necessary activation codes."

"ETA 2 minutes," Kristoff reported.

"No but seriously," Flynn went on, moving up to the ridge that overlooked the street below. "To think they would have deployed a Class-X insertion team to assault a single convoy would definitely mean something, right?"

"Shut your mouth, Flynn," Nemo retorted with a wide grin. "Always the curious."

"Hey, one day I'm going to become a world-famous detective," Flynn replied. "Imagine. The great Flynn. Doing what a Class-X never good."

"Screw you man," Charles said, trying to hide a smile. "I hope you'll never get there."

"Oh, we'll see."

"ETA one minute."

"Oh will you chillax, Kristoff?" Flynn walked over and put his hand on his shoulder. "It's going to be fine."

"I don't like the looks of this." Kristoff scouted the area, looking through the scope on 8x magnification. "This doesn't make sense. It's way too quiet out here."

"What, isn't that a good thing? Y'know, I kinda like having the easier missions—"

"That's not it, Charles. Something's up."

"Hey," Nemo said suddenly, "Does anyone else feel kinda chilly? It's like the temperature got a lot colder—"

"Shh." Flynn cut in. "Get down! Convoy." Kristoff planted the remote camera on the ledge before ducking behind it, initiating his HUD's display of the camera feed. "Give me the EMP. I'll trigger it." Charles tossed the device towards him and he caught it, his fingers almost fumbling with the device as they stiffened, sparking off panic inside him before he got his fingers under control. _Nemo is right. It is kinda cold._

Along the red lines that darted along the cityscape and buildings within the sector the camera picked up the pure black convoy that made a slow turn around the bend. Kristoff recognized the model: Turtle-class transport, armed with the heaviest armor ever placed on a convoy. Along its rectangular body were 4 mounted and remote-controlled turrets, all controlled by operators inside the convoy. Its thrusters maintained its levitation to the highest order of stability. In essence, it was a floating tank, minus the huge gun. Alongside it were two patrol flyers, Mosquito-class gunships, armed with enough firepower to take out a skyscraper.

_Flynn has a point. What the hell is in that convoy?_ Nervously he thumbed the safety on and off from his rifle, taking in deep breaths to calm himself. He wasn't going to enjoy going up against one of those things. _I never liked doing these kind of things. Why the hell did I sign up for this…_

Silently he watched the camera feed as the Turtle moved slowly across the street. His HUD kept up the feed, but also brought up a scanned simulation of the area, projecting the effective range of the EMP. Right now, the convoy was about to move straight into it. "Wait until it gets into the middle of the sphere," he heard Charles say.

"You sure our suits are immune to this shit?" Flynn asked cautiously. "We do run on electronics too, you know."

"Our suits electronics are made to stand more than this dosage of blast," Charles replied.

"Dude," Nemo said. "This is the highest EMP charge made in human history. Are you absolutely sure you didn't miss anything?"

"Only one way to find out."

The convoy ambled its way further into the blast radius. Kristoff's hands tightened on the detonator.

"Now."

Kristoff hit the detonator, and static slammed into his eardrums, causing him to scream out. His HUD whited out, then faded to black and the crackling started all around him, mingled in with the screams of his own teammates. An electrical jolt slammed into his palm as his metal rifle was charged, forcing him to drop the weapon with a rather loud clatter. His fist clenched and slammed onto the ground, attempting to block out the static screams that filled his head.

And then there was a calm, just before he heard the most terrible screaming of metal as what he assumed must be the convoy crash into the ground below. His HUD lighted up again, and for a moment there was silence.

"Told you," Charles said.

Kristoff scrambled to his feet, picking up the sniper rifle and looking through the scope. The device had done its work indeed; the Mosquitoes were now a mangled heap of burning metal, and the Turtle wasn't going anywhere either, though Kristoff was impressed that it's main cargo hold was still intact. "Let's move." He slammed the grapple onto the ridge and disengaged, falling with the device strapped to his belt, allowing him to rappel down to the ground below. The moment he reached the floor he detached the device entirely, allowing it to fall to the ground as he raised the ASR1, pointing the barrel nervously at the Turtle.

Nothing stirred.

His teammates rappelled down next to him. "Anything?" Kristoff shook his head, rifle still raised. His teammates retrieved their own weapons as they moved towards the Turtle, cautiously taking one step at a time.

The back doors creaked open.

It didn't open much, just a tiny slit and a glimpse into the interior of the cargo hold, where sparks were flying, scattered across the room. Kristoff couldn't make out much, but he needed to make sure everything was good. "Flynn. Move up and secure the vehicle."

"You got it." His teammate moved up and towards the opening in the cargo bay, never dropping his guard as his footsteps echoed off the metal ground of the street. Nemo hefted his LMG as he took two tentative steps forward.

"Charles," Kristoff said. "Can you get a scan on the vehicle?"

"Should have done that the first time." Charles' gauntlet popped, extending the scanner from the interior of the arm guard, sweeping a beam of blue light over the wreckage. "Feed is uploading to all our HUDs." A window popped up on Kristoff's HUD, distracting him temporarily from his scope.

Something was wrong about that scan. It should have been blank. The shapes inside should have been square and boxy, like that of actual cargo.

But the shape was human.

And moving fast.

"FLYNN!"

His teammate turned around at the sound of his scream just before a shard of what appeared to be ice slammed straight through his body, the tip coated with freshly drawn blood. Flynn looked down, half in pain, half in shock. And then one more slammed through his skull, his prone form collapsing to the ground.

"NO!" Kristoff yelled as he watched the corpse slam into the floor. The doors of the Turtle burst open, and a blue form sprung from within, gushing a strange blue light from limbs.

A single thought crystallized in his head. _What. The. Fuck._

The woman levitated above them, her hands glowing blue, her eyes a blinding white. Her dress splayed out behind her, flowing with the cold gust that had suddenly rushed through the street they were on, her hair a mess of platinum blonde. Her gaze tilted upwards, almost like she was expecting something, and if she was she most certainly got it. The snowstorm hit them with full force, staggering Kristoff as he struggled to maintain a straight aim. "Weapons free!" he yelled to his teammates. "WEAPONS FREE!"

Nemo opened fire first, albeit miserably off target. The figure turned, Nemo having caught her attention, but he kept up the stream of lead as he yelled in defiance. She merely frowned, directing her own stream of ice towards him. Nemo took the first shard in the chest, the next in the shoulder, and the last in his leg. He fell to one knee, crying in pain just as Charles recovered to open fire, taking advantage of the temporary but costly distraction. But it didn't work. An ice sheet materialized in front of the figure as she blasted Nemo with a potent beam of ice, knocking him to the ground, moving no longer. She almost didn't bother about Charles' own attack, simply slamming the sheet straight into him, knocking Charles out.

Kristoff's own rifle finally got a shot off. The .50 cal rifle kicked back into his shoulder as he fired, the round shattering the first ice shield conjured, but blocked by a second one conjured almost immediately. He cursed, ducking to the side as a blast of ice razed the ground he was standing on moments earlier, hitting the floor rather painfully on his arm. He'd made a tactical mistake, and he knew it. In a rather hasty attempt to get to his feet he exposed himself, and then he was restrained. Invisible but tangible tendrils grasped his torso with a vice-like grip, holding him firm as the figure swooped down towards him. Kristoff struggled to break free, but by then her hand was already strangling his neck.

"**Why… are… you… here…"**

In the haze of his lack of air Kristoff heard the words echo off the surrounding buildings, only to echo off within the walls of his head. _Her voice…_ It was penetrating, omnipresent. He couldn't escape it, and neither was he going to escape death by strangulation.

In a final desperate attempt he reached behind him, retrieved his taser, and jammed the device into the figure's arm. She screamed in pain, the grip on his torso and neck released. Instinctively Kristoff kicked forward, knocking the figure backward, then delivered a solid uppercut to his adversary's chin, sending her flying a good distance away. He dropped to his knees, attempting to catch his breath, half from strangulation, half from shock.

_What the bloody hell was that?_

He looked at the fallen bodies of his teammates. He could do nothing for them now; he had no medical equipment to attempt to revive them. "Oracle, this is Strike-one. We've secured the cargo, but my teammates are wounded and KIA. Need a CASEVAC and cargo transport at my coordinates ASAP."

"Copy that, Strike-one, can finally oblige. Sending a Hummingbird towards your location now."

Kristoff picked up his rifle and slung it over his shoulder, attaching it to the magnetic grips on his suit. Then, as a personal matter of duty, he went over to his teammates corpses and retrieved their dogtags. When he got to Charles, his arm reached up to grab his. Charles' eyes flung open, glazed over in a combination of pain and fear.

"Shh… it's okay, Charles. CASEVAC is coming." The same eyes rolled over to gaze at Kristoff, the expression softening, and the arm went limp as he slipped back into unconsciousness.

Kristoff's own arm was trembling.

And as he sat down next to Charles' prone body he took another gaze at the figure clad in blue, now lying motionless on the floor a few feet away. He closed his eyes, trying to drive away the images and the shock and the fear and the horror that had plagued him only moments before, and decided the best way for him to do that was to sleep.

But for him, sleep never came.

* * *

><p>"So we got her?"<p>

"Yes sir."

"I'm impressed, to say the least. For a single Class-X to be able to somehow neutralize the greatest war machine that we have known, they are either extremely qualified, or ridiculously lucky."

"They did get the jump on her."

"Even so, we've seen her combat capabilities. For her to be downed like this is considered a feat in itself. That unit is getting medals when they get back, posthumous or not."

"What's to be done with her?"

"Well, we've done our job. We've neutralized the threat posed to us, so now we shouldn't have to worry about overly lethal terrorist attacks on our cities. For the girl, I'd say the most humane treatment we can provide to someone so outcast and isolated already, is to put her into the academy."

"What happened to her?"

"Rumours say she was bred for war. Never given a chance to feel what it was like to be a true human being, instead tortured into obedience and sent to fight from very, very young. The academy can help her regain those lost years, but I'm afraid I can't share the same optimism about her regaining her humanity."

"I do suppose we have to try."

"You're right. We do have to try. And maybe we'll get a new recruit out of this too."

"Doesn't that take the humanity part away?"

"You say it like recruits and humans are two separate things altogether."

"Is it not so, for her?"

"…"


	2. Chapter 1

_Omega [REDUX]_

_Chapter 1_

"We're pinned down over here!"

Anna ignored the incessant yelling blasting into her ear from the comm unit, moving up to the ridge instead with her ASR1. She hefted the rifle over the edge, aiming through the scope, pulling the trigger a fraction too late just as the target's head whizzed past her crosshairs. The figure darted behind cover, a flash of the object he carried just barely reached Anna's eyes.

_Damn._ Her sloppy aim was a burden to her team, but then again, her team was pretty sloppy too. She pulled back the bolt on the weapon, ejecting the round. "I have eyes on hostiles with the intel, need reinforcements at my position. Does anybody copy?"

Only garbled static reached her ears.

_This is ludicrous_, she thought. _I can't legitimately be the only member in my squadron left alive!_ She pulled up the squad display on her HUD, only to serve as confirmation for her fears.

There were still three other squadrons fighting for the same intel.

Gunshots rang out near her position, forcing her to duck as she watched bullet trails whizz pass overhead; whoever she had just fired upon was now firing back. She waited for the weapon to run out of ammunition, then she swung the rifle back over the ridge to take another shot. She was a second too late; the figure had already bolted.

Frantically Anna slung the weapon over her shoulder, drawing her sidearm instead as she sprinted from her current location, still on the second floor of buildings surrounding the inner square of the compound. Her target was headed towards the center, the bloodbath of the area, only because it was the only route to his extraction. A risky but necessary move that he was forced to take, one that Anna was determined to exploit.

She vaulted over a stone slab in her way, using the temporary increase in elevation to pull off a few shots at the soldier beneath her. Sparks flew near him, forcing him to flinch and cover his head with his arms, but her shots failed to deter his speed. She landed back on her own feet moments later, continuing to run and track her target, only to be forced to duck to the floor as more gunfire rained down near her.

_It's called "The Bloodbath" for a reason, you dimwit,_ she cursed to herself as she brought her pistol up to bear, pulling off a few shots at her aggressor who had appeared on the other building. The girl flinched and ducked, giving Anna precious seconds to recover and retrieve her rifle. Her target was now sprinting across the open.

Wordlessly she took aim, zeroed in on her target and pulled the trigger.

The round ripped through her target's chest, sending his corpse skidding to the ground, leaving a blood trail in its wake. But there was no time to celebrate; the intel was still in the open, and she had another soldier firing on her position. Anna ducked to avoid another deadly hail of lead, ducking into a stairwell to head downwards towards her objective—

A gloved fist caught her in the side of her cheek, knocking her backward. Before she could recover she felt a sharp metal violator stab straight into her gut, sending searing pain into her abdomen before she heard a loud gunshot.

Her HUD went static, faded to black, and then the red words of "_Terminated: Entering spectator mode in 5"_ emerged on her screen. She felt her consciousness come rushing back to her; her eyes registered the darkness of her cramped surroundings, and the bright, almost glaring screen on the pod cover before her eyes. Anna's hands reached for the console controls upon the pod's backrest to navigate the remnants of the fight.

Secretly though, she was disappointed.

Her mind travelled back to her appointment in the academy's counselling department, sitting there in that somewhat pleasant room talking to Jeffrey, the counsellor assigned to her. Originally it was arranged solely because Anna had been placed there after the death of her parents. Those sessions were times Anna didn't bother remembering, or was grieving too much to remember. Now she couldn't tell. Gradually, she'd gone on to discuss other things.

Jeffrey's question to her was: "Something's bothering you, even after you've been much more cheery nowadays. What's up?"

She laid back in the creamy leather chair, tilted her head back just a little, and replied: "I don't feel like I'm… capable of doing anything."

Now she laid back against the pod's backrest as she waited for the match to end. Gunfire exchanges passed by the screen before her, unnoticed to her preoccupied brain. Her own performance flashed upon the screen, lines of depressing stats that Anna already knew. Her aim was pathetically poor, albeit marginally better compared to some of her teammates, but she was basically cannon fodder anyway. Combined with a lack of tactical sense and poor hand-to-hand combat skills, her overall proficiency as a soldier was poor.

And she knew the academy would inevitably expel poorly-performing recruits, orphans or not.

The match ended after a while of her lying back in the pod. With a hiss the lid managed a small jolt, then began the slow ascent to open the pod. Already she could hear the chatter of satisfied and excited fellow recruits from the other squadrons in the other sections of the room. Her section, containing her own teammates, was noticeably quiet, but she was used to it.

She slammed her hands upon the back of her pod as she pushed herself out, silently swearing as she did.

"What happened in there…" she heard Merida curse as she exited her own pod. "We had it, I fucking swear."

"Yeah well, we are one member short," Anna replied, leaning against her pod. "We are already disadvantaged." She gave a nod to Rapunzel and Belle as they joined the square they stood in, as per their routine after every terrible match.

Which, Anna noticed, was becoming every match.

"At least Ursula left," Belle remarked, "and that's a good thing, right?"

Anna's heart trembled just a little bit at the mention of Ursula's name; she didn't like Ursula in their team, especially after how she terrorized them with every single mistake they made. They'd moved her up to the higher divisions, but Ursula had made it a point to destroy their specific squadron during the routine evaluation tests, when the upper divisions were called in to do the dirty work.

"Yeah," Anna said. "I guess."

"Well we better get moving," said Rapunzel. "We still got Tactical class within the next hour; not that much of time to shower up and eat lunch."

Anna swung her braids back over her shoulder blades as she pushed herself off the pod she was leaning on, taking somewhat heavy steps towards the simulator exit, her heart sharing some of that weight.

* * *

><p>They'd been sitting in Tactical midway during their lesson before the General had called them out.<p>

"I trust you're aware of the situation regarding your squad manpower," he had said as he had closed the door behind them.

Anna nodded. She didn't bother checking her teammates' response.

"We're transferring a new recruit over to your squadron. She'll arrive sometime later in the day, and will report straight to your quarters, so don't be surprised if someone new pops by later on."

More nodding.

"And, Miss Anna, may I speak with you privately?"

She'd stood by silently as the rest of her teammates left the empty hallowed corridor that sat outside their tutorial room.

"Your recent records in the simulation have been… shall we say… not on form."

Anna cocked an eyebrow.

"It's a soccer reference."

She narrowed her eyes.

"Anyway, I came here to tell you that you're gonna have to buck up with whatever you're doing. The administration can accord some leeway given your…" the General paused to choose his next words carefully, "…situation. Note that I said leeway, not exemption."

She understood.

"With any luck, your new… recruit, should be able to provide you lessons in various other ways, despite your position as squadron leader."

"If I may sir, what might the background of my— I mean, our new recruit, be?"

The General paused again. She was surprised; he was only that way if he really had to think hard and long about something, and she didn't think such an innocent statement would elicit such a response.

"That won't be relevant to your training. You'll know her well enough when she comes."

"I doubt icebreakers would suffice."

The General actually let out a small laugh. "You'll figure something out," he said.

* * *

><p>Anna awoke.<p>

She was lucky, her alarm hadn't rung yet to wake her from her afternoon nap, else she would have woken to something much wor—

_BEEP! BEEP!_

"Goddammit," she muttered out loud, outstretching her arm to slam down upon her alarm as she pushed the blanket off her, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. The green holographic display glowed dim, giving an eerie gleam across her bedside table. Her room remained pitch black, no windows to look through, no light to enter. _I have the worst sleep cycles._

She swung her feet off the bed, stretching her arms to relieve the ache that resided within her joints, reaching out towards the release button. One click. With a hiss, the front door of her room slid upwards, revealing the empty circle of their team's compound, the dim fading sunlight glinting off the marble floor.

Just that it wasn't empty, as it should have been. A single figure occupied the center, standing with a small duffel bag slung over her shoulder.

Anna cocked one eyebrow. "Hello?" she called out.

She watched as the figure turned her head. Something kicked within Anna as she saw the girl's platinum blonde curls swing with the same motion, her head's rational thought temporarily compromised. What was left of it quickly suppressed the distraction, and her eyes focused once more, no longer dilated.

"Did you take a wrong turn?" Anna ventured again.

"I was told to come here," her new companion replied, holding up what appeared to be an access card. "There's no way I could have gone to the wrong room with this."

_Feisty,_ Anna thought to herself. "Are you our transfer?"

It was her new companion's turn to cock an eyebrow. "Transfer? They didn't really tell me anything. They said you would tell me what I had to do."

"Oh. Of course – Rapunzel! Merida! Belle! We just got our transfer!" Anna yelled out, not really bothering to moderate her volume. But then again, their team barracks were usually separated a decent distance away from the nearest team's. Two doors hissed a slid open, revealing two equally sleepy figures staggering to their feet.

"Oh hey." Merida brushed away her red hair. "You must be the new girl."

"Hello," Rapunzel began. "I don't suppose we've been formally introduced."

"No shit Rapunzel, she just got here." Belle managed to say.

"Shut up Belle, I'm trying to be nice." Anna noticed a small smile creeping up their new companion's face.

"Well then," Anna interjected, looking at the girl, "Did they give you any specific instructions aside from coming here?"

"Not really, except that I'm in room A."

"Oh."

There was a moment of awkward silence as they stood motionless in the open circle, watching their new companion walk over to the room, open the door, only to throw her duffel in and close the room again. "What's the procedure here?" she went on. "They told me you would fill me in."

"Who told you?" Merida asked, sounding a tad annoyed. "We're not here to babysit yo—"

"I am aware of that," came the curt reply. "I'm just asking."

The three of them shared a rather confused glance between each other before turning back to their new arrival. "So… are you formally a part of our team?" Rapunzel asked. "Not just someone tagging along?"

"You could say that."

"Well, I guess we'd better get going," Merida said. "Mess is at 1917. We still need to wash up and get down there ASAP." She turned specifically towards their newcomer. "Latecomers will be punished. Quite severely." She got a nod in reply.

"Let's get out of here." Rapunzel grabbed her things and headed towards their barracks bathroom. Anna moved to follow, but stopped in her tracks.

"You still haven't told us your name."

"My name?" Her new friend looked rather confused for a second, then recollected her thoughts and responded: "My name. It's Elsa."

* * *

><p>Her eyes fluttered open.<p>

_Where am I? What just happened? I don't remember—_

_I'm trapped._ Her head jerked forward, and slammed onto something hard directly front of her. Darkness engulfed her senses; she almost couldn't breathe from the claustrophobia. Her hands tried to lash out, frost crystalizing upon her snowy white skin that was invisible in the dark, her breath becoming more ragged by the second, panic surging across her being—

_No. No no no no. Calm down. Calm the hell down. _

She exhaled deeply. _Breathe in…_

_Breathe out…_

_Breathe in…_

She was startled by the loud, sudden hiss emerging from the pod she was constrained in. The cover lifted; the blinding light torrenting through the gaps the expanded ever further with time. _What is this mysterious machine,_ she managed to think before a loud screeching sound penetrated her eardrums. Frantically she covered her ears, but it didn't stop, her sensory overload further constraining her mental processes.

From somewhere distant she heard small yelling:

"Are you okay?"

"She's going into shock."

"Someone stabilize her! We do not want to lose her!"

"Working on it!"

She felt hands grab her roughly by the side. Her reaction was to attempt to struggle, but an all-encompassing weight wrapped tendrils upon her limbs, paralyzing her. She could not move a muscle. The screeching got louder and louder, and her head lolled to one side, eyes rolling back into their sockets as she blacked out.

* * *

><p>"Are you okay?"<p>

She struggled to open her eyes again. Her head rested on a soft pillow, yet her arms were constrained by cloth straps that seemed surprisingly resilient. She didn't bother pulling on the straps anymore; she was way too tired for exertion by now.

Her parched lips felt painful to touch, so her mouth hung limply half-open. She didn't know what to say. She tried moving her body, but everything hurt, even though her mind was strangely clear.

Her eyeballs trailed across the room. The room walls were a creamy colour, soothingly so compared to the glaring lights on the ceiling, the window across from her bed transparent to the empty corridor outside. She heard the monotonous beeping of the machine she was hooked up to, her eyelids drooping from the effort, her body at rest yet at pain at the same time. She felt the metal sting of needles permeate her skin into her veins, leaving a sickening feeling in her stomach.

"Are you okay?"

She tilted her head ever so slightly, wincing as she did so. A red-haired man clothed in white robes sat on a wooden chair next to her bed, his face an expression on concern.

_No. Not quite._ She sensed the forced tension of muscles and the ounce of falseness upon his face, even as he looked her straight in the eye.

"I… guess," she managed to reply. _Two can play at this game._

"Do you remember what happened?"

Now she definitely couldn't remember that. She'd have to be truthful about this one; she was after all, restrained to a bed in foreign territory that she could not recognize. She shook her head.

The red-haired man raised a similarly coloured eyebrow. "Okay… well, for the time being, you'll be staying with us. Do you know where you are?"

She shook her head again.

"We're in an academy— I mean, military academy in Arendelle. It was the closest medical facility to where we had originally found you, but I do suppose we can accommodate you here for the time being, or at least, until other arrangements can be made in the future." He sighed and tilted his head ever so slightly, but she couldn't recognize the expression. "Do you recall anything at all?"

Her head didn't move this time.

"Even your name?"

"My name?" Her head cocked to one side.

"My name.

"It's Elsa."


	3. Chapter 2

_Omega [REDUX]_

_Chapter 2_

Anna hadn't forgotten what the General had said to her the day Elsa had arrived: "With any luck, your new… recruit, should be able to provide you lessons in various other ways, despite your position as squadron leader."

Right now she leaned back in the cushioned seats of the lecture theatre, the lights dimmed all around her as the holographic projection in the middle of the room began to activate. _More tactical lessons._ They were by far, her least liked subject, given that she hadn't found it useful in her simulation. She wasn't sure if it was her ineffectiveness with them, or that she couldn't aim well enough to put the plans into action. Either way, the lectures bored her.

As squadron leader, it had become her responsibility for her to take care of their "new arrival". Their team, designated Omega-V, sat at the back end of the room. It worked to avoid any potential paper balls that would fly the way of the teams sitting in front. By far, it was proving a good tactical decision, the wisest one Anna had probably made. The more contentious decision was to volunteer to sit next to their latest member. Elsa was potentially much too quiet for her liking; she was quite worried how they'd get along.

Already Merida, Belle and Rapunzel hadn't continued their interaction with Elsa, and she wasn't sure that it was the right move to take up the initiative. She sighed inwardly; Anna didn't know why she'd been designated squad leader, when one of her other teammates could probably do a better job. It was half the reason Ursula was picking on her.

Anna drew up the tablet and began to doodle, half ignoring the lecture going on before her, strangely paying more attention to the paper balls being thrown around.

She saw the platinum blonde next to her tilt her head ever so slightly. She recognized the motion; the signature sign of someone who wanted to see what was on her screen. Inwardly she sighed. Evidently her new recruit was adhering to the strict standards of the academy, even though she, who was much more dependent on it, was not. Anna prepared herself for the tirade of reprisals that were sure to come the moment she saw the blonde make a more obvious movement to speak.

"What is that you draw?"

For a moment she was caught off-guard. She clearly was not expecting that response, and had to recollect her scattered thoughts to respond awkwardly, "Err… I don't quite know." In truth she'd began to draw the outlines of a human face, but hadn't quite decided what features she should put in. Now that she was looking at Elsa though…

"Pardon me," Elsa cut into her thoughts with her voice, "I did not mean to intrude. I was curious."

"It's okay," Anna replied, trying to play it cool, but failed to suppress a bout of nervous laughter. "People keep asking me about these anyways."

"Do you do these often?"

"What do you mean?" Anna asked, now feeling even more embarrassment and guilt. "You mean the drawing itself? Or drawing in class?"

"…both, I guess," was the reply.

"Errr…"

She felt Elsa's finger give her forearm a quick flick, in indication of the lecturer's odd gaze to locate the various sources of sound that emanated across the room, and shut up instantly, staring down intently at her desk to avoid attracting attention. Anna raised both her eyebrows as she looked downwards at where Elsa had struck her, suddenly realizing how quick the motion had been, given the original position of Elsa's hand.

"Thanks," she whispered, when the lecturer turned herself back towards the projection. Then, as an afterthought, she added, "Do you do that often?"

"What do you mean?" Elsa said, with a small smile on her face. "You mean the flicking itself? Or flicking people in class?"

"Both, I guess." Anna grinned. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad to have her around after all.

* * *

><p>Weapons class appeared more interesting for her new red-haired companion, or at least, the non-frizzy red-haired companion. It was probably the most distinct feature about her, it was that made her stand out from the rest of her teammates. Elsa watched Anna lift the ASR1, custom spray painted with streaks of red, and take a potshot at the target. The round missed.<p>

She raised an eyebrow as she watched her teammates practice shooting with their weapons of choice, inwardly making assessments of their combat proficiency. By far the best of them was Merida, the "archer" per se, being the most accurate with the bow in her hand. The rest of her teammates seemed to be gifted in missing their shots most of the time.

_Stop being judgemental_, she told herself. _It's not their fault they're not some bio-engineered superweapon. They even have normal lives, unlike yourself._

Their designated firing area in the simulation only had four lanes and targets, forcing them to take turns with firing their weapons. Elsa sat on the glowing simulated bench, fiddling with her simulated tablet, making a detailed analysis of her teammates. _Goddamn these things. I wish I'd messed around with these things more before I got here._

She watched her team continue their practice. Rapunzel was their medic, as she'd noted down, apparently into the field of temporarily altering one's perception of pain, for the sake of continuing combat. Belle was their strategist. Elsa had drawn up replays of their previous rounds and analyzed their execution and decisions, and had concluded Belle had much to learn. For Anna…

_I'm being mean here._

_No you're not,_ another voice in her head told her. _She isn't proficient. Not yet, at least._

Another loud discharge reached her ears as she saw the bullet leave the barrel of Anna's rifle and sail over the target. Her super-enhanced vision caught every quiver in Anna's arms. _Poor recoil control. Unable to gauge bullet drop, doesn't know when it matters, moderate reflexes. Most importantly, something is holding her back, but I can't tell what._

She swore Anna deliberately put her rifle down with more force. "I'm done," she said, giving Elsa a hand motion, "you want a go?"

Wordlessly Elsa nodded and rose, strolling over to the firing range. She put a hand forward as she stepped into the lane and the simulation responded, bringing up a weapons screen, allowing her to "retrieve" her T2 pistol, pure white in colour. Out of the corner of her eye she caught Anna raising a single eyebrow.

"Fancy," Anna said.

"Thank you," Elsa replied as she raised only her hand holding the pistol, her eyes squinting ever so slightly to aim. Then she pulled the trigger, feeling the handle kick into her palm with every shot she pulled off, the casings clattering to the simulated glass floor.

Every shot scored a bulls-eye.

Anna's jaw had already dropped by the time Elsa took a deep breath, putting her hand down as she drew a fresh clip to reload. "How the—" she heard Anna begin.

"Long story," Elsa replied, with a straight face, desperately trying conceal any slip ups on her part. "Very long story."

* * *

><p>Anna was intrigued by Elsa.<p>

Even after the first few hours she still couldn't shake the feeling that she really liked her. In some way or another, at the very least. Especially after the incident in the mess hall.

Their team was Valkyrie, a Delta Division team, potentially the worst amongst all the other teams. Their War Games standings had continuously proven to be one of the worst in the entire academy, and Merida's feisty attitude didn't really help that out either. It wasn't that they were terrible (okay, maybe she was cutting herself too much slack), but their execution of strategies was problematic, and often clumsy, in part due to Anna's own clumsiness.

So it was no wonder that the rest of the teams started to mock them a lot. Especially Ursula, captain of the best Beta Division team, Harbinger, once a member of Valkyrie herself. She was pretty good, Anna would give her that, but she was also a massive bitch, figuratively and literally. Merida had gotten into fights with her in her own attempt to protect Anna, but had been easily beaten down, and sent to the infirmary with a broken nose and a black eye. Ursula was muscular enough to take on all of them at once, so she always got her way.

Worse enough, the teachers considered it a "natural order" for such "politics" to take place in the academy; they argued that if the recruits couldn't settle their differences here, they wouldn't survive in the war.

That day had been no different. Ursula had decided it was a good idea to knock the food out of Anna's tray just as she was walking back to her table during dinner. Her plates clattered loudly to the ground, bringing about a silence across the mess hall, only enforced by Anna's own cry of "GodDAMMIT Ursula!"

"What?" she taunted. "Little clumsy princess can't stand a little joke?"

"It isn't a joke when you keep doing it." Anna turned towards her, eyes blazing with rage. "For fuck's sake—"

"Or else what?" Ursula stepped forward, rising to her full height, towering over Anna's much smaller frame. "What you gonna do about it?" Anna could feel all the eyes in the mess hall locked onto the little scene they were making, her own fists clenching in response, even as her own form hunched back a little bit. "You think you can take me on?" Ursula went on.

No one was going to help her. Everyone was scared of Ursula; even some of the Alpha Division people didn't dare go near her, so if she was going to get into a fight only she could defend herself. With any luck, her teammates would find an opportunity to step in without getting too badly hurt, but even that was unlikely. But Ursula was already stepping towards her, so she braced for the assault.

Anna didn't even see the punch. But then again, it didn't connect. The next thing she knew she was vaguely aware of a minor scuffle, and then Elsa was standing in front of her, Ursula lying on her back a few feet away.

_What in the—?_

"Pick on someone your own size, bitch," she heard Elsa spit out, assuming a fighting stance. "If you want a fight, come at me. I can do this all day."

"And who the hell do you think you are?" Ursula roared as she pushed herself to her feet. _This is suicide_, Anna thought, watching Elsa approach the biggest bully in the academy. _She's going to get herself killed!_ Helplessly she shot a glance towards Rapunzel, but all she got a restraining hand from Merida and a warning glance from Rapunzel.

"Don't even think about it," Merida whispered into her ear.

"But we can't just let her—"

"We can't help her," Belle chimed in. "She got into this shit. We won't be able to help her onto her broken feet if our own feet are broken too." Anna cursed under her breath, turning back to watch the scene ahead of her.

Elsa planted her feet onto the tray Anna had dropped, flipping it upwards, catching it with one palm. "It's not too late to step out," she said.

"Will you look at that?" Ursula declared to the watching eyes that looked in from all sides. "This newb here thinks she's the bomb around here."

"Keep talking like that, and the next thing you know that bomb will shove this tray so far up your ass they'll have to cut your mouth open to get it out." That drew a laugh from the onlooking crowd, but that was hardly a good thing. Anna watched the rage spread over Ursula's face, her own fear for Elsa clutching at her heart. _Please don't get yourself killed. I don't want you getting hurt because of me._

Ursula bellowed a war cry, thoroughly humiliated. "You think you're so big, newb? Fight me in the War Games, and then we'll see who's bigger."

"Why wait for the War Games when you can start now?" Elsa taunted, idly twirling the metal tray in her fingers with ease. "What, scared I'll whoop your ass that can't respawn in real life? Must be a defective ass." More laughter, more rage. Ursula had had enough; Anna could see the restraint in her eyes snap, replaced by a manifestation of pure rage and anger.

"Aren't the teachers going to do anything about this?" she heard Rapunzel whisper.

"They never do until it's too late," Merida said. "They think this helps us to learn. Only thing it'll do is get someone killed."

With a bellow Ursula charged towards Elsa's slim frame, her fist raised in a position to strike downwards. It didn't get to release; Elsa swung the tray, catching Ursula's face with the flat face of the tray, knocking her back. A twist, Elsa swung her leg in the opposite direction of her original swing, sweeping Ursula off her legs and onto her back with a loud slam as she hit the ground. She dropped to her knees, swinging her own clenched fist in the same motion, bringing it down on Ursula's face with a loud crack that echoed throughout the mess hall. Ursula bellowed in pain, attempting to get up, but Elsa lashed out with her leg, connecting with Ursula's forehead and knocking her out.

Then for a brief moment there was silence. All was still, save for Elsa's body taking on a ragged breathing pattern, her chest heaving from the effort. She dropped the tray with a loud clatter. Then she recovered, pushing her hair back with bloodied hands as she stood up. Below, the pool of Ursula's own blood began to spread around her head.

"Someone get a teacher in here," Anna heard someone call out as the mess hall slowly resumed its activity, watching as Elsa walked over to an empty table and sit down, her own brain attempting to comprehend the scene that had just unfolded in front of her. The chatter gradually resumed after some people ran off, albeit a tad bit more nervously and fervent.

Anna turned. Rapunzel was paralyzed in shock, and Merida's jaw was wide open. "What the hell just happened?"

Belle was the first to recover. "She – she just – she—"

Anna was too, at a loss for words, simply moving over to the table Elsa was sitting at and sat down beside her. Her friend's head was down, eyes never leaving the cold surface of the table, her hair drooping with her head's position. She was affected, alright, and from what Anna could tell she hadn't enjoyed what she had just done.

So Anna put her hand on Elsa's shoulder, and whispered, "Thanks."

"Least I could do," came the reply.

"Do you mind if I ask what's wrong?"

The background noise continued as Anna waited for an answer, but got none after a while. _Oh no, did I go too far? I only wanted to help… maybe I should go. _"I'm sorry, I'll just—" Anna turned away to leave, but she felt a cool hand clasp hers. Mildly alarmed, she looked down at Elsa's hand clasping onto her wrist, Elsa's own eyes gazing into hers. Was that sorrow? Fear?

"It's not your fault. Please – don't go."

Anna sat back down, the coolness of Elsa's touch lingering on her skin even when Elsa removed her hand, leaving a curiosity lingering in her mind. "I – I promise I won't—"

"It's fine, Anna. You couldn't have known. I can't blame you for asking."

* * *

><p>General Hans called her up in the midst of a class. She saw her teammates send a worried glance her way just before she closed the door behind her. She didn't say a word as Hans looked at her disapprovingly.<p>

"We've talked about something like this happening," he said calmly.

"What was I supposed to do?" she retorted.

"Defuse the situation?"

"There isn't reasoning with these people."

"Yes there is. Violence should only be your last resort in all circumstances. And even if you are counting on your last resort…" the general said, pausing in the middle to glance at the datapad in his hand, "you should probably not hit that hard."

"It's the only way she'll stop doing this to her."

"To who?"

"Anna. My squad leader. She's being bullied. Constantly."

"She'll have to deal with that."

"How? She's barely combat proficient, and she doesn't have much of the guts to stand up for herself out there. The others ridicule her."

She watched a small smile play out upon the general's face. "I'm glad you're saying all this. About a year ago we weren't sure you'd reach this stage."

The agitation in her eyes dissipated, replaced by a tinge of sorrow. General Hans continued, "If you really do want to help her, there are of course, other ways."

"Like what?"

"Help her train, for one. She is on the blacklist for poor performance recently; you'd be able to help her."

Her heart thudded in her chest. "M…me? Help her?"

"Is there a problem?" Hans looked genuinely surprised for once.

"No, it's just I— I'm scared."

"You'll do fine. I'm sure Anna will understand whatever you plan for her."

Elsa diverted her eyes to the corridor floor as she pondered the information over.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day, through the various classes and training sessions were spent in silence. Pretty much no one dared to talk to Elsa, even her own teammates. Anna herself was pretty scared as much as she was impressed. This had been an entirely new development<p>

Only when they were dismissed from academic activities entirely did Merida finally gain enough courage to say, "How the fuck did you do that?"

"Do what?" Elsa cocked an eyebrow at her as their team walked back towards their bunks.

"Beat the crap out of the worst bully in the entire academy."

Elsa didn't really respond, just gave a small, somewhat sad smile and left.


	4. Chapter 3

_Omega [REDUX]_

_Chapter 3_

If she'd had her way, she should be asleep now. Anna loved sleep more than a lot of other things in her life, but unfortunately, the academy clearly had other plans for her.

**DELTA DIVISION MATCH 16703412**

_VALKYRIE _VS _ARCHANGEL_

MATCHTYPE: _SINGLE ELIMINATION_

ARENA: _URBAN-1_

MATCH STARTS **0800** TOMORROW

She sighed as the notification popped up on her datapad, and rushed to alert her teammates, all of which were already preparing for bed. "PEOPLE!" she hollered. "We've got a match tomorrow, 0800 hours! We need to plan!"

"Dammit," she heard Merida curse as the redhead emerged from their team's shower area.

Anna sat down in the middle of the open circle that lead to their rooms, the gleaming moonlight illuminating their marble like floor. She dropped the datapad and pressed a button, allowing a circular marble slab to push upwards to form their makeshift table, as was the standard issue in all team rooms. Evidently the academy wished to ensure their recruits would get used to the most uncomfortable of circumstances as possible.

Belle emerged first, bringing out a series of papers and datachips. "I have a new plan for this one," she remarked to Anna as she sat down.

Anna gave a small giggle. "That's what you said last time."

"Shut up."

Merida and Rapunzel came next, Merida twirling an arrow, Rapunzel hugging a few textbooks. "Urban-1 again?" Rapunzel exclaimed in annoyance. "I hate that map."

"We keep dying on it, that is a given," Merida acknowledged as they took their places next to Anna. "It's like, both open and closed at the same time, and we can't seem to predict where the enemy is coming from."

"Then don't."

They all turned to the voice. Elsa.

"And… remind me how that would be beneficial to our strategy again?" Merida asked, a tinge of cockiness in her voice. Belle cringed visibly.

"You plan for every possible scenario." Elsa's seemingly hypnotic tone floating through Anna's ears as she watched her sit down as well. Elsa's eyebrows furrowed. "Your… 'map', confirms this."

"You do realise we have only one night to finish this, right?" Merida continued. "We can't possibly plan every contingency."

They watched as Elsa took another long, hard look at the map. "You move very defensively. Check all your corners."

"That doesn't help," Belle chimed in at last, plugging in a few of her chips into Anna's datapad, bringing up a 3D projection of their previous attempts of clearing the area. "We're either gunned down quickly or sniped out when we don't go to CQB."

"Your only choice is CQB here," Elsa said. "The roofs are too open. And with all due respect, you can't countersnipe that effectively."

"If that's the case, how do we fight defensively?" said Rapunzel, a little bit annoyed. Anna felt her heart thud; she could see where this was going.

Apparently, so could Elsa. "I understand you think you've done the best you can, and I believe that given the circumstances, that is true." She took a deep breath continuing. "You still have to work on positioning and aiming." She drew out a datapad of her own, and cleared Belle's projection.

Belle was about to protest, but Elsa cut her off with a projection of her own. "This was the last match you were in, also on Urban-1." The blue projection marked out each and every recruit, and for a brief moment they rewatched the movements of the recruits. Elsa was definitely correct about where she'd gotten the footage from; Anna recognized her movements along the roofs of the lower buildings, taking out the soldier who was escaping intelligence, before getting stabbed in close quarters.

"You were only able to take out one soldier, and that was because he severely underestimated your ability to aim at someone in the open."

"With all due respect," Merida cut in sharply, "I'd appreciate if you'd refrain from criticizing us. You haven't even been in the arena; you don't understand what exactly we face in this map."

"Then tell me."

"On every other map we can do better, but this one allows our opponents to keep shutting down."

Abruptly Elsa cut the projection, her face expressionless. "Suit yourself, I suppose," she said, her voice monotone, pushing herself for her feet and leaving for a room.

Silence hung over the remaining four recruits until they heard Elsa's door slide shut.

"What the hell was that, Merida?" Anna asked, somewhat angry herself. "You didn't have to do that?"

"She doesn't have the right to lecture us on what we should be doing," Merida retorted. "She needs to know her place."

"You weren't so open about that opinion when she took Ursula down," Belle said quietly.

That seemed to placate Merida. "Whatever, okay?" she said. "She still shouldn't tell us that we're not putting effort it."

"That wasn't her point," Rapunzel joined in. "She just said we had work to do. We'd better forget this and get back to planning."

"How does that work?" Belle asked. "We're a member short."

"We'll just position her somewhere I guess and get her to fulfil whatever it requires of her." Anna sighed as she reloaded the render of the map. "We'd better get cracking, else we're not going to get enough sleep."

* * *

><p>Anxiety forced Anna to wake up.<p>

She was still lying on the marble slab when she'd decided to take a little bit of shut-eye. Evidently that had not worked; she'd taken a lot of shut eye. The faintest rays of sunlight were now visible as she looked up at the sky.

Then she jumped involuntarily. Elsa was sitting directly opposite her. The blonde raised her head to look at her. "What?"

"Nothing," Anna replied, "I just thought you wouldn't be up this early."

"I hardly sleep."

"I'm sorry about yesterday." The words came pouring out, even though Anna realized that she had no obligation to apologise.

"No one's at fault here. The only thing that's going to happen is that you'll all die in the arena today."

"Excuse me?" Anna half-glared at Elsa.

"I've seen your plan." Elsa slid the datapad back across to Anna. "To prevent further disagreement I'll go along with it. But I must warn you that this current strategy will only serve to harm your team standing in your division."

Anna fell quiet at the statement. Elsa got up and went back to her room.

* * *

><p>The entire team was silent as they reported to the simulation room. Their pods had already been prepped by the techs, so they could load up and get in as soon as they could. From the somewhat annoyed scrunching of feature's on Merida's face, Anna could tell she still wasn't happy. Belle and Rapunzel refrained from conversation, simply acknowledging Elsa with nods.<p>

She couldn't tell what Elsa was thinking; she was as expressionless as the night before.

"Valkyrie Squadron, load up and engage neural synchronisations."

Wordlessly they followed the announcement's instructions, mounting their pods and leaning back. Anna hit the buttons on the control panel, allowing the fiber-like cover to close on top of her, the inside booting up with a soft blue glow. _Select loadout_ were the words upon the screen. Anna reached out to input the necessary commands, and finalized her selection.

The pods started whirring loudly again. Anna felt a severe disorientating, nauseating feeling permeate her being, and her eyeballs rolled back in her skull. Everything went black.

When she came to she was lying on a dusty concrete floor. She blinked once or twice as she came to. Her ASR1 and T2 pistol were lying next to her. Her reflexes finally kicking in, she reached out to retrieve her weapons and ammunition. "Status report," she spoke into her COM unit as she slung the rifle over a shoulder and had the pistol clasped firmly in her hand.

"I'm good."

"Good to go."

"I'm already in position."

"Elsa?" Anna had not heard from her.

"I'm here."

_That's… reassuring,_ Anna thought. "Alright, we know our positions. Let's get to it." She glanced down at her helmet's minimap display in the bottom left of her visor as she gingerly walked towards her sniper nest.

"Shit!" she heard Merida say. "I've got contact! North of my location." Gunfire echoed through the COM unit. She checked Merida's location on the minimap: somewhere out in the arena square, with two marked hostiles on her map.

Anna rushed past empty corridors a little rashly, but luckily no ill will came her way. She reached the sniper nest, already hearing the sounds of gunfire. Frantically she unslung her rifle, planted a ground-based motion sensor, and took aim through the scope.

She watched a poorly timed arrow strike the broken concrete slabs in front of Merida' opponents. They had ducked, and were reloading their automatic weapons. Anna timed her shot to the moment when they pushed themselves back up to target Merida again, and she pulled the trigger.

The shot emitted a loud bang; the bullet trail sailed over her target's head. "Shit!" one of them yelled, "Sniper! Get your dicks in the ground!" Frustrated, Anna pulled back the bolt on the ASR1 and took aim again through the scope. She fired again, watching the white trails miss their mark and her targets reposition themselves.

"Can't get a clear shot on them," Anna reported as she pulled back the bolt once more. "They keep using cover."

"What do you expect them to be doing, Anna?" came a slightly irritated Merida. "Exposing themselves to be shot?"

"Shut up guys," Belle cut in. "Focus on taking them—"

A loud discharge filled their COM channel, and Belle dropped off their HUD.

"What the fuck?" Anna managed to say incredulously as she kept up the suppression on Merida's contacts. "What the hell was that?"

"Someone's armed with a shotgun," Elsa replied calmly. "Everyone watch their backs, especially—"

Something painful cut through Anna's back as she was aiming through the scope, and their communication was cut off. Everything went black again.

Anna slammed her fist onto the pod cover even before she opened her eyes.

* * *

><p>They'd already lost two people. <em>This is going downhill.<em> Elsa pulled back the slide on the T2, cautiously proceeding down the hallway she was currently in, her footsteps silent upon the concrete floor.

Footsteps. Decently loud; evidently whoever was coming did not factor in how sound would affect his or her performance. _Directly ahead, coming from the… left side. _Elsa brought the pistol up to bear, narrowing her eyes to aim. _Any moment now._

The soldier rounded the corner in a sprinting fashion, his rifle pointed to the ground, totally unaware of Elsa's presence. The first round caught him in the shoulder. As his body turned with momentum he cried out in pain, falling towards the floor. Midway down Elsa fired off another shot that sliced through his skull, eliminating him from the simulation.

_3 versus 5._ _7 shots left in clip. Still a short distance to cover to Merida._ She took a deep breath and continued down the hallway, aiming the pistol down the whole way. "Merida, Rapunzel. Do you copy?"

"Still pinned down over here!" Merida managed to reply.

"I'm freed up," Rapunzel stated. "I'm close to Anna's position. Moving to recon."

"Don't!" Elsa shouted out her warning as she closed in on Merida. "Aim your rifle down the hallway closest to Anna's position. Wait for 5 seconds."

"But—"

"Do it! 4 seconds!"

She heard Rapunzel raise the rifle. "Whatever you say boss…"

"Two seconds."

"One second."

As she turned the wall into the open city square she heard Rapunzel open fire. She raised her own pistol, having successfully flanked Merida's opponents, and opened fire. Her first rounds caught one of the soldiers in the gut. His cry of pain alerted his ally, who turned towards Elsa, but she fired off another round. The bullet pierced his palm, forcing him to drop the weapon. A quick flick of her wrist and Elsa pulled off two headshots just before another resounding discharge sent a sniper round whizzing past her face.

_SHIT_. Elsa hit the deck, crawling towards some more rubble. "Merida! Get into cover!" She ducked instinctively as she heard another loud bang. "Merida!"

"I got this." Elsa struggled into a better position as she saw Merida rise to her full height out of her cover and take aim with her weapon. As she pulled the bowstring back and took aim, a round caught her in the chest, and she collapsed. She disappeared off the HUD.

"Elsa?" came Rapunzel's voice. "You okay? I just saw Merida drop off the HUD."

"Yeah," Elsa replied, half-listening, still calculating the trajectory of the sniper. "Did you take out the other one?"

"Yes, you were right about his—" Her communication cut off abruptly, synchronized with the loud discharge of the sniper rifle. Elsa swore as she dashed from her cover, having already seen the bullet trail, and caught a glimpse of the scope's reflection in the sunlight. She had a large open distance to cover to the sniper nest, but everywhere around her was exposed.

_Screw this._ Elsa broke into a run, straight towards the sniper. Evidently there had been a reloading of the weapon, because she got a few yards towards her target location before her enhanced hearing picked up the sound of a spent cartridge clattering to the floor. Frantically she strafed to the right, dropping her spent ammunition clip to the ground as a round pierced the air which she had previously occupied seconds before. _That won't happen again._

She could now hear the sliding of the straight-pull bolt. Elsa raised the pistol as the sniper came into view. She pulled the trigger once.

The bullet was dead-on; not on the sniper's head, for he fired in the exact same instant, but her bullet connected with the sniper round mid-flight. She didn't bother to look for the ricochet; she already knew she'd hit. Instead Elsa fired again, this time straight for the sniper.

_**Valkyrie **__victory_ flashed upon her HUD as she found her movement suddenly restricted as the simulation began to shut down, her own vision fading to black.

* * *

><p>Elsa avoided her team for a while after the simulation; she felt awkward going back to her team after the events that had transpired prior to her first combat scenario. Any form of interaction might equate to shoving it in their faces, or at least, that was the idea that was currently running in her head. They had a bunch of free time until the end of lunch, so for the majority of that period of time she disappeared like a ghost.<p>

She darted across the campus silently, invisible to the rest of the students as she reached the roof, open to the scenery that stretched far and wide. The campus was situated on a mountain that teemed with wildlife and overgrown with vegetation, along a plain that stretched from horizon to horizon. The sun's rays touched everything down here, leaving the warmth caressing her smooth milky skin.

Elsa stood to her full height from once. Being up on the roof gave her a sense of freedom; something she'd yet to master. As much as she'd hated growing up in captivity, it had bound her to the concept; she found it extremely difficult to think for herself, as much as she would subconsciously do so at times, leaving her confused and broken. She needed to get used to it. Right now she felt empty and voided, like some part of her was missing.

She leaned against the exterior of the stairwell from which she had exited and looked across the landscape, and inhaled deeply.

"You come here too?" A voice startled her out of her skin and she jolted around, almost ready to strike. She relaxed. It was Anna. She felt a little better now.

"Yeah."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "Huh. Funny. I come here a lot too."

They both fell into a shared moment of silence as they admired the scenery. "What do you like about this place?"

Elsa shrugged. "There's a word I use to describe this feeling, but I can't think of it now."

"Can I guess for you?"

"Shoot. We'll figure it out eventually, I guess."

"Relaxed?"

"In some sense, but not quite."

"Content?"

"Not really."

"Free?"

Elsa contemplated it for a while. "Yeah. I think that's it."

"Hmm."

Another moment of silence, this time more comfortable.


	5. Chapter 4

_Omega [REDUX]_

_Chapter 4_

There was a sense of begrudging respect among the team when Elsa stepped back into the lecture hall alongside Anna for their next class. She could see it in their eyes.

Frankly, she wholly believed Elsa deserved it. She'd watched the replay of their match, thoroughly impressed at how Elsa had predicted the enemy movements so accurately and precisely, aside from her seemingly superhuman abilities. She didn't know how that last bullet from the sniper could be deflected by someone else's shots, but all in all it was one hell of a play. Impressed as she was, it was kind of scary.

But after their little moment up on the roof, her opinion of Elsa somewhat softened. _I guess she's human too, just like all of us._

_Of course, Anna, what the hell were you expecting? Someone cold and cruel?_

…_maybe—_

_Oh please. She's in the academy just like all of us. Just 'cause she's different doesn't mean you should be thinking that way. You ought to be ashamed of yourself._

She jolted out of her thoughts after Merida gave her a nudge. Evidently she had taken a seat despite being caught up in her thoughts, Merida on her right, Elsa on her left. She found sitting right next to Elsa a little bit less intimidating than before, and took it as a good sign.

"Recruits, today we'll be deviating a little bit from our normal programme of strategic and tactical approaches to the battlefield," the lecturer began. "Instead, I'd like to take the time to explore the main enemies of the UIF, an entity that is known as…" He paused for effect as he lit up the holographic display, "Empyrean."

Anna sighed out loud, but soft enough that the lecturer did not hear her. _Empyrean. Not again. It's like the only thing they keep going on about._ Truth be told Anna did not envision herself as a soldier actively undertaking deployments against Empyrean; she never considered what would happen to her once she turned 21, three years from now, the same the time she'd have to find a job for herself and could no longer be under custody of the academy.

Now that she was thinking about it, she wasn't very sure where she would go.

But more interestingly, she felt Elsa stiffen at the very mention of the word "Empyrean". It was barely visible, and it was probably just because Anna happened to be sitting right next to her, but she caught the movement nonetheless. That set off a twinge of curiosity, but no more.

"Aren't they the bastards we're training to fight for, sir?" a random voice in the lecture hall popped up.

"A little enthusiastic don't you think?" another one said. The hall burst into laughter.

"You would be correct, both of you," the lecturer said, with a straight face. "They are indeed, the main threat that the United International Front faces, and while you may hear lots of jokes and wisecracks about them, know this: you will not step foot upon that battlefield with that attitude. No no. You do that, and you die."

His display finally completed booting up. Anna sat just a little bit straighter, now somewhat interested in what the lecturer would have to say.

She felt a nudge from Merida, and tilted her head slightly so she could hear. "What's up with Frosty?"

Anna was confused. "Who?"

"Elsa. Look at her."

Anna shifted her eyes. Elsa was leaning back in her chair, eyes shut, body now somewhat shivering, lips pursed tightly together. The strange thing was, Anna didn't even feel cold.

"She might be sick," she responded to Merida.

"But she was fine in the arena," came the reply.

Anna had no answer to that, so she merely shrugged, casting a sidelong, somewhat worried glance at Elsa before turning her attention back to the lecturer.

"Call them terrorists, or cowards, all you want," he was going on, "but remember, your enemy is well-trained, well-experienced and well-armed." A series of texts and numbers began to fill the holographic display. "This is a list of victories and defeats we've had in recent battles with Empyrean. As you can see, this number is almost even."

Gasps and murmurs ruffled through the crowd. "Yes, yes I know, you're all rather amazed amidst the image of unstoppable UIF soldiers in your minds. That's why I'm telling you Empyrean is good. But here, we're training you to be better.

"We do not yield to our opponents. You all are here because you've all committed to protecting all that you hold dear. You are the ones that will find the courage to surge forward in the face of adversity, and defend what is right."

_God, I swear this is some pre-arranged propaganda._

"I'll let you all in on a little secret. About a year back, a bunch of my previous students were part of a squad that captured and secured Empyrean's superweapon."

Cheers erupted from the crowd amidst gasps of genuine surprise and joy. Abruptly Anna watched Elsa stand up and walk, considerably briskly and unsteadily, straight towards the exit of the lecture hall. _What's up with her?_

"The heck?" Rapunzel asked from across their table, Belle also casting a glance as to where Elsa had walked off to. Merida shrugged, almost casually, but Anna could see a tinge of concern in her eyes.

_What are you up to, Elsa?_

* * *

><p><em>Empyrean.<em>

Elsa stumbled out of the lecture theatre, frantically shutting the door behind her. _Empyrean. _The word rang in her head like the tolling of a bell, increasing in volume with each utterance. _Empyrean. _She was already struggling to keep her balance, and was beginning to feel disorientated.

_Empyrean._

The image of the dreaded irons flashed into sight, red-hot and glowing. A sharp pain sliced through her skull, yet she felt no wound nor blood as her legs gave way and collapsed to the floor. Her hands caught the brunt of the impact, and she gasped in pain as she struggled to push herself back up. _Empyrean. _She needed to escape, to get out of wherever she was, to get that image out of her head.

_Empyrean._

_NO! _her mind screamed as she pushed her way through confused students, fully aware that she was attracting a lot of attention but she needed to get that voice that goddamned voice out of her head otherwise she would end up doing something she would regret and then everyone would know what she was and she definitely couldn't let that happen what was that mantra she needed to think of that mantra conceal don't feel conceal don't feel conceal don't feel conceal don't feel conceal don't f—

* * *

><p>Deafening silence.<p>

There was no sound to accompany the invasive permeating of light into her irises, her eyelids squinting to minimize the strain on her sensory organs. The light was white, pure white, and no other colour.

Only when her sensory functions began to kick in again did the light increase in clarity. She felt oddly calm as the medical light directly above her came into view. Her enhancements kicked in; her eyes began to feel a reduced effect from glare, and she saw the world in much greater focus. She could feel her body again. She didn't hurt, she just felt tired. Right now the cool fabric of the pillow reached the back of her neck. She almost sighed in relief.

_What the hell happened—?_

The glowing irons flashed across her vision again. She didn't jump this time, but she definitely felt her skin crawl, along with a growing mix of annoyance and dread. _Goddammit, this again._ She almost found the strength to roll her eyes, but the exhaustion overcame her and blurry spots appeared in her vision.

"Elsa?"

Mustering whatever energy she had left lying on the bed, she turned toward the sound. It was Hans.

"You okay?"

Probably one of the better things about Hans was that he treated her like an actual human being. Unlike some of those doctors, who'd say things like "You're awake" even though she was evidently conscious.

"I guess," she responded. "I just feel spent."

"You should be." Hans gave a brief glance at the datapad in his hand. "The report tells me you stumbled out of your class and attempted to break into a run, all while in a heightened state of panic. Then you fainted, having run a good halfway across our campus, and I'm sure you know how big our campus is."

"16 kilometers long."

"Well, if anything, it shows you're really fit. As far as the report indicates you may have broken the academy record for running."

That brought a small smile to Elsa's face.

"You are unfortunately required to return to your normal schedule in the academy as soon as you recover."

"I'm fine with that," Elsa replied. "It keeps me occupied."

"You sure it's not triggering any of these… events?"

That set her thinking for a while. "It was only 'cause the lecturer went on about this." She shuddered from the flashback. "I don't even want to think about what happened."

"I'll understand."

Another moment of silence passed between them. Elsa was glad she was comfortable around Hans, else things would have gotten awkward very quickly.

"Your team leader is waiting, you know."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "Anna? What's she doing here?"

"She's concerned."

Elsa let out a snort. "Concerned about what. I'm not worth her time." She could hear her own self-deprecation shine through. It still hurt.

"Don't say that, especially considering we've had this conversation a million times over."

"I doubt any of it is true anyway."

"Hey, we promised not to lie to each other, remember?"

"Yeah, but—"

Hans held up a hand. "Stop right there. We're not going back down that path again."

Elsa pursed her lips.

"I don't want to hear you say those things again. I know it isn't the first time I'm telling you this, and it probably won't be the last time either."

She averted his gaze, even though she knew there was no malice in it. Sometimes she wondered why she even bothered to keep going on, and hadn't put a gun to her head yet. Sometimes she'd attempt to justify the things she'd done, and fail. Sometimes she just curled up and cried through it all. Right now she simply looked down at the white blanket that covered up the better part of her body, doing a better job of keeping her warm than the flimsy infirmary outfit was doing.

"I'd better go. Anna would want to see you." Hans got up, the chair creaking as he did. Elsa watched him walk over to the door in his signature slow-walking fashion, open it, and exit.

Just before the door clicked shut it burst open again. It was Anna. For a moment they just stared at each other, and Elsa took the time to look Anna up and down; from the student outfit she wore to the red hair that adorned her head and shoulders, to the freckles on her face. It was a new sensation, she realized, to admire someone in such great detail.

"I'm sorry," Anna said, breaking the silence. "Are you okay?"

Her words took another delay before Elsa's own brain registered their meaning. "Yeah, yeah," she replied quickly, trying to hide the fact that she'd been staring. "I'm good." _What the hell was that?_

"That's good. I mean, that's great!" Anna said, slipping past the door, with what Elsa noticed was a semi-forced smile on her face. _Semi-forced? That means half of it is actually genuine. I'm quite surprised._

"You don't have classes now?" Elsa asked as casually as she could.

"No, they made an exception for our team; they asked if we wanted to go and see you. I… volunteered to come alone so the others could take notes and bring us up to speed when we get back, because… we have a test coming up soon. I'm sorry, you probably didn't want to hear that…" Anna's voice trailed off into silence.

"It's fine," Elsa said, trying to comfort her team leader while still analyzing her words. _Volunteered? She means she wanted to come, but the rest of the team didn't. I'd understand why the team wouldn't want to, but why would she want to?_ "I was probably going to flunk the test anyway."

That was a tension breaker; it got a relieved giggle out of Anna, and Elsa felt a weight lift off from her chest as well. Whether it was from the general sense of relief or simply the melodious sound of Anna laughing, she could not tell.

"How long do you have here?"

"…the whole day apparently. The general was rather… generous with this issue."

"That must be the lamest pun I've ever heard."

Anna laughed again; Elsa found herself longing to hear it more.

"Would you rather go back to lessons or just stay here the whole day?"

"No way!" Anna said, and Elsa's heart sank just a little, in before Anna continued, "I'd rather stay here. I hate the lessons we're having today."

"And what are those?"

"More tactical, a lot more of it, and a match. Luckily, that got postponed, because I'm here, and you're technically WIA."

Elsa smirked. "It's cool, I'm taking one for the team." _Humour? This is new; I never knew I had any semblance of it. I've read about it, I've researched on it, but never actually put it into practice…_ She found her smile widening as Anna giggled again.

_God I love that sound._

The rest of the day was spent talking, doodling, generally dissing of Ursula, future strategies for gamemodes Elsa had yet to see, and animated gesturing. Anna seemed to be full of it; Elsa not so, though she suspected it was only because she was exhausted and confined to a bed.

At the end of it all Anna stood up to leave, but just as she was about to exit Elsa saw the blur of red hair whip around quickly as she turned and quickly mouthed the words "Thank you", alongside what must have been an absolutely radiant smile, before she shut the door and darted off, somewhat sheepishly, according to Elsa's observations.

Elsa leaned back into her pillow. She felt warm. She kicked away the blanket and lay in the hospital bed.

She wasn't warm in terms of actual temperature. She felt warm inside.

And she couldn't get the smile off her face.

* * *

><p>"How is she holding up?"<p>

"A lot better. This much progress in the span of one year? We both never expected such rapid progression. She'll be fine."

"I would certainly hope so, given what she's been through."

"Indeed."

"What of her combat proficiency?"

"Let's see… according to her last simulated deployment… she appears to have single-handedly turned the tables."

"Should we be surprised?"

"What do you mean?"

"She was a superweapon only because of her natural elemental affinity. No mention of her combat proficiency was ever made in our reports while she was still being… used."

"What do you expect me to have in my hands? An in-depth analysis? She's only been through one simulated deployment. Considering we know that she has the knowledge and capacity for combat, I'd say everything has gone as expected."

"Yes, but she's done well against recruits. Of the worst division in the academy."

"Are you suggesting we pit her, and the team of seemingly inadequate recruits that make up her team, against far more experienced opponents? That isn't remotely fair in any way."

"There are of course, alternate methods to properly assess her proficiency."

"Yes, but, drag along recruits that have nothing to do with this? It's not fair to them!"

"They are—"

"No, one of them is at risk of fulfilling the expulsion criteria. She isn't of legal age yet, and cannot find employment elsewhere, even though she can still be expelled. I will not have additional circumstance drag down her performance unfairly."

"Why is that a problem?"

"Because she's an orphan."

"…"

"Do you see now?"

"Yes, I do suppose that makes somewhat of a difference. In that case, we should employ… alternative methods then."

"Such as?"

"Our Omega level asset will train this… orphan. If this orphan—"

"I'd rather you call her Anna. Anna Arendelle. The term 'orphan' is degrading in nature."

"Fine. Anna. If Anna has indeed improved under her coaching, then I'd say that is an absolutely fair assessment of her proficiency for combat, and also for interaction. This way, we keep this Anna you care about, and we can decide what to do with Asset Omega."

"I'd implore you not to call her that."

"Then what do I call her?"

"By name. It's Elsa."


	6. Chapter 5

_Omega [REDUX]_

_Chapter 5_

"I'm actually going to have to enforce what I told you about previously."

It had been a week since Elsa had been discharged after the incident with the lecturer. Since then he'd been given a warning, and their team had been temporarily suspended from combat simulation exercises until they were sure Elsa had fully recovered.

Elsa nodded. There was no escaping this; if Hans gave an order, she'd actually have to follow it, because Hans rarely gave an order. When he did, he meant really serious business that probably couldn't be avoided. "I'm still scared," she admitted, somewhat quietly.

"Like I said, you'll be fine." They were standing in one of the more picturesque corridors, with the entire right face converted to a window, allowing them a view of the grassy plains that stretched out far and wide. She leaned on a metal handrail, gazing at the plains, Hans standing right beside her. It was Elsa's second place to come to whenever she needed to get away. "Just do whatever your heart tells you to do," Hans continued.

"We're talking about getting her to pass the tests that determine her future, Hans," Elsa replied, feeling her own heart chill as she uttered those words. "You just placed her 'life' into my hands."

"Is that necessarily wrong?"

"I certainly don't see how it's necessarily right."

"Hans," Elsa said, with a tinge of worry as she turned to look at him straight in the eye. To his credit, Hans didn't flinch. "I don't even know if I can take care of myself, let alone her," she continued. "How am I supposed to know if what I'm doing is right, or if I'm condemning my team leader to a potentially bleak future outside this academy? What if she gets screwed over because of me?"

"It'll be fine, Elsa."

"How would you know that?"

"It doesn't matter—"

Elsa turned on Hans with such a glare that the general actually took a single step back, her rage manifesting in the formation of a layer of frost that crackled as it spread across her hands. "Doesn't matter? Like how those thousands of innocent civilians didn't matter either? Like the lives I destroyed with the flick of my wrist?!" Her rage coalesced into crystals upon her open palms, and a chilly breeze whistled down the hallway.

But Hans stared Elsa back down in total silence until her rage cooled, and the crystals receded back into oblivion, the wind slowly dying out. And then he spoke: "You need to let that go."

"Let it go?" Elsa stared back incredulously, with tears in her eyes. "How could I possibly let that go? I KILLED those people. De-lifed them. Un-alived them. They are gone. GONE, Hans. Because of me."

"The actions of the past do not determine the outcome of the future, Elsa. Remember that."

_The actions of… what?_ She felt a single tear drip down her cheek, but because it was so cold the tear froze and dropped straight to the floor. The sound of the ice shattering was audible throughout the silent corridor.

"Like I said, Elsa," Hans continued, in a tone less harsh than before, "you'll be fine. Just follow what you think is right."

Elsa barely managed a nod.

They stood there in silence, in another one of their moments as Elsa contemplated the events that had just transpired.

"You'll have to find a schedule to fit her in," Hans spoke up, in a rare moment of breaking the silence, adjusting the grip of his datapad in his hand that had become numb from cold. "But you'll have to arrange that yourself."

"Why was the enforcement necessary? I mean, if you'd pestered me enough I'd probably have gotten down to it anyway."

"…long story."

"I see." _Just another cover up. I do suppose there are lots of things he can't tell me. But then again, I doubt knowing would do me any good._

The realization did nothing to soothe her anger. She was angry at a lot of things. Partially angry at herself, and she definitely had a lot of reasons for that where she could go on and on and on. But she'd had the past year to do that. Mainly, she realized, she was angry at the situation, for it was a clear injustice. Not an injustice towards herself, but an injustice to Anna, that she should have her fate placed in the hands of an insecure, volatile superweapon.

* * *

><p>Last break before term exams.<p>

_Break?_ If anything, it was going to be a bore, with absolutely nothing to do. Anna sulked as she sat on her bed, leaning against the wall adorned with the blankness of nothingness, contemplating her options for the break ahead. It would be a week long, and the academy would mostly be empty, because the other recruits would be gladly out of there, going back to their warm, loving families that Anna did not have.

It had taken a while for Anna to get over that fact; even now as she thought about it she could feel tears pricking her eyes, but she forced herself to keep them under control. There was no good in thinking about the things they used to do as a family, except further compromise her mental state. Anna had enough to worry about right then and there: she had to maintain some form of physical discipline if she was going to keep up in the simulated exercises, and she had to pass quite a few tests, considering she had flunked the majority of them previously. So, with the resolve that had probably taken her an eternity to muster, she had willingly turned down Merida's invitation to spend the break with her family. She didn't want to burden them for yet another year, for yet another break.

Now though, she wasn't sure it was a good choice.

She snuggled up into the corner with her blanket, trying to get as comfortable as possible without having to lie down; she could barely sleep in that position. Her own mind trailed over the remaining memories of her parents still lingering in her neural storage, grasping at what was left of the warmth she would never experience again.

The next thing she knew she was lying in the same position on her bed, with her arm just a bit more numb than before, and the sounds of her teammates shuffling outside.

_Wait, if they're shuffling outside, how late has is it—_

In an almost frantic state Anna sprung from her bed and hit the "door open" button on the side of the wall. Panicking at her apparent lack of punctuality, Anna practically ducked under the door as it opened to scurry outside.

Only to find her teammates already packing up their last belongings. It was daylight, early morning; the day they were supposed to go back home.

Except that she had no home.

The thought gave her being a whole new low to feel as she watched, almost silently, as her teammates continued packing up. One by one they turned to her, with delayed reactions, upon realizing that she had woken up. For a short moment they all stood there, staring at each other.

"I'm sorry… we… decided that you would have wanted to sleep," Rapunzel spoke up, somewhat abashedly.

Merida walked up to Anna and enveloped her in a tight embrace. Anna hugged her back as she tried to hold back tears. "You sure you don't want to come? It's not too late now, you can still pack up in a hurry," she said softly into Anna's ear.

They broke apart, and Anna gave Merida's bow hand a squeeze. "I'll be fine," she replied, and flashed Merida a smile.

Similarly, she embraced both Belle and Rapunzel, and watched forlornly as they departed their team's living quarters, down into the main body of the academy, towards the comfort of a family they enjoyed. A comfort that Anna no longer had. She sighed and turned back towards her room as the sun's rays began to shine fully into their team's living quarters, the warmth of the sun doing nothing to alleviate the void she felt inside.

Something was nagging at the back of their head, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Her team seemed rather… incomplete. Like it was missing someone.

_Wait. What about Elsa? Has she left too?_ Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Elsa's room. _It doesn't seem to have opened…_ "Elsa?" she called out as she began to knock on the door. "Are you in there?"

No response.

She pouted; Anna had hoped to have some company during the break, and was hoping Elsa was staying. _But she should be, considering she hasn't really left, and the door's indicator shows that the room is still being occupied…_

She needed something that would catch Elsa's attention. Maybe Elsa just didn't want to come out for whatever reason; Anna certainly wouldn't know. But right now, she wanted to just see Elsa for herself in person, even if Elsa was going to leave, so at least she'd have a memory of Elsa before spending the rest of the break alone, all by herself. She didn't know why she was thinking about it that way, but right then she didn't care.

So with all the breath she had in her she yelled out, in an oddly loud voice, the most confounding phrase she could have ever conjured in her entire life: "ELSA! DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN?"

"Snowman? It's summer, Anna."

_Why is the voice coming from behind me—?_

With the feeling of dread that can only come when one embarrasses herself, Anna turned around, to find Elsa having just entered their living quarters. She'd been mistaken. "But… but… the room indicator said occupied…" she stammered out in a mixture of confusion and embarrassment.

"Yes, it says that for as long as someone is using the room; it doesn't necessarily mean someone is physically present in the room, unlike the toilets in the academy." Elsa walked over to Anna with a completely expressionless face, clearly with the intention of entering her room, seemingly oblivious to the humiliation Anna had just heaped upon herself. "Why did you want to build a snowman though?" she continued, her face not betraying a single hint of emotion.

"Oh. Er…" Anna struggled to come up with a probable explanation. "I used to love building them in the winter. I guess I was… you know what, forget it, I was just being stupid." She pouted when she said that, noticing the ends of Elsa's lips curl up into a smile as she stopped next to the door. "Where were you this morning?"

"Settling our programme for this break." Elsa fumbled through her pockets for her room's keycard.

Anna cocked an eyebrow. "Our programme?"

Elsa suddenly froze entirely, her head drooping to look at the ground, her eyes shimmering just a little. _Did I say something wrong? _Anna thought. _I hope I didn't, I really hope I didn't—_

"Yes," Elsa said, all of a sudden. "Ours." She held out the file, the actual, tangible folder containing a few documents inside. Anna was genuinely surprised; tangible documents were saved only for the most official of documents, and for a moment everything didn't make sense.

Then Elsa dropped the bombshell. "I've been assigned to train you during this break."

* * *

><p>There.<p>

She'd said it. Now the rest was out of her control; Elsa could only see how Anna react. She wasn't expecting anything positive, because on the comparative, the negative was a lot more likely. Anna had absolutely no idea who Elsa was, where she'd come from, and moreover how in anyway was she qualified to teach her in any way. Elsa's own gaze looked back down to the ground once more, in fearful anticipation of the reaction that would come.

"Really? Oh my goodness that's great!"

Her brain took a little while to comprehend the words she'd just heard. _Great? But… why in the world would anyone say that—_

"I was so afraid that I'd be all alone during this break, but luckily enough we're both going to be doing things together," Anna went on, still dizzyingly happy from the announcement, as far as Elsa's own muddled-up brain could tell at the time. "Oh my god, what are we going to do together? Are you going to teach me how to do those awesome takedowns?" Anna started punching the air, imitating the way Elsa had fended of Ursula, uttering fighting-style exclamations as she did so.

Then abruptly she stopped. "I'm sorry," she said abashedly, now looking away somewhat. "I'm rambling and being an idiot again."

Elsa let out a small giggle; she hadn't even realized she'd been smiling and on the brink of laughter. She composed herself quickly, but couldn't wipe the smile off her face. "Yeah, and a bunch of other stuff too."

"Whoa! That's so cool!" Anna said, completely forgetting the control she had previously wanted to impose on herself. "When do we start?"

"You can start with a full run around the campus." Elsa didn't bother looking at Anna's widening eyes and dropping jaw as she finally got out her keycard, tapping it on the door indicator to allow it to slide open. "You were excited to start training, were you not?"

"Yeah, but—"

Elsa turned towards Anna with the most serious look she could possibly master. "If you're ever going to master those takedowns, you're going to have to train your stamina." She reached out a hand to take back the file from Anna and flipped it open. "Apparently I've scheduled us for physical training for today and tomorrow, before we move on to your aim." Casually she walked into her room and dropped the file on her desk, leaving Anna gawking outside as Elsa began to rummage through her drawer.

"What are you waiting for?" Elsa asked nonchalantly as she retrieved her training outfit. "You can't go running in that," she went on, jerking her head towards Anna's pyjamas.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, Anna's stamina had turned out much, much worse than expected; Elsa finished their pre-arranged two rounds around the campus perimeter way before Anna had completed the first one. At that rate, she realized she'd had a lot of time before Anna would eventually catch up.<p>

Elsa had been fibbing about the schedule. In truth, she'd sent Anna on a run she knew it would be near impossible for her to complete in a short time, just so that Elsa could use the time spent waiting for Anna to brainstorm other ideas. Now she needed to come up with something to appear that everything was under control, and that Anna didn't have a terribly insecure and incompetent young adult woman training her to pass an exam that could determine her future. Still panting from her exertion, she exited the elevator and back into their team compound, her mind already racing through a series of possibilities.

But she found herself getting increasingly flustered and frustrated at her lack of ideas. Anna would finish the run in due time, and if she couldn't come up with something like that, then things would get ugly from there.

_I still have no idea what to do!_

In a momentary lapse of control she lashed forth with her hands, and from her open palms fired arcs of ice that whipped out at the opposing wall, freezing the surface with a loud crack.

"Let it go…" Hans words floated through her head as she dropped to knees in great shock, staring at her open palms as she desperately tried to conceal the frosty icing that coated her hands. That was the problem: it wouldn't melt, only fade away if she wasn't bothered about it. She stared helplessly at the ice across the compound; this would certainly not do, because she couldn't have Anna find out what she was, not just yet. She wasn't comfortable with it yet.

_Why are you so stressed out? Relax; even if you don't have anything for her she won't think any less of you…_

Her breathing finally evened out as she closed her eyes, leaning back against her room door. Everything became crystal clear; the fog that had once clouded her rational mind now dissolved away, and her eyes opened with a surprising clarity.

What could she possibly do to train Anna though? _Think Elsa, how would you want Anna to look by the end of all this—_

A mental image of Anna's fair skin and toned muscles flashed through her mind. The image was surprisingly vivid: Anna's back was towards her, completely topless, her freckles showing on her pure white shoulders, her toned arms and back in clear view of Elsa's lingering gaze that had begun to trail downwards, staring longingly at the back of her thighs, calves, and her wonderful behind—

Elsa shut her eyes abruptly and rubbed them, trying to get the image out of her head. No use; it was already burned into her head, and she wasn't erasing that image anytime soon. She felt… different, very much different on the inside, a feeling that she could not comprehend based on her current knowledge. Elsa wasn't surprised; being bred as a superweapon didn't allow her to develop in ways others would have, so there were emotions and sensations she would not be familiar with. She'd have to visit the library to conduct more research if she wanted to find out what she was feeling.

But she kind of liked it.

She enjoyed the idea; she did want to see Anna possess such a figure, because as much as it would get her fit and in shape, it would also give Elsa a goal to train Anna towards. But how? Such a physique would require intense physical training to build muscle and stamina.

Then she looked at the ice and had a brainwave.

_Still, you haven't done this for a very long time. This could go wrong in a lot of ways._

_How about trying it out first, then deciding what to do later?_

_Then how would you explain it if it went wrong?_

_That is something to decide if it actually does go wrong._

Between the two bickering inner voices Elsa made up her mind. She stretched out her hands again, palms wide open, in a more controlled motion. Then with a calm, collecting swing, Elsa conjured up a single, perfect slab of ice. She could see the mist emanating off from it, so she knew she'd made the right kind of ice, the one that could melt. Emboldened and encouraged, Elsa continued her work, conjuring even more blocks of ice. By the time her enhanced hearing picked up the sound of Anna stepping into the elevator, she'd already formed 15 separate blocks.

When Anna exited the lift her jaw dropped again. "What…? And… how…?"

"Oh, your next task is to carry all the blocks individually from one side of the compound to the other," Elsa said as she began to walk back to her room to retrieve clothes to change into, giving a small smile to Anna as she did. "Thrice."


	7. Chapter 6

_Omega [REDUX]_

_Chapter 6_

After she was done Anna just let her legs give way and crumpled to the floor, in a somewhat undignified fashion, letting the exhaustion from her torturous exercise take over her. _God! How did Elsa even get all of these here in the first place?_

Her breath came out in quick, sharp intakes, her hands way too tired to even support her in a sitting position. So instead Anna decided to simply lie down on the floor, completely spread-eagled. She didn't even care how Elsa must have thought of her at that point. _I am so, so, so unfit. I'm never gonna pass the tests at this rate._ Anna let her head loll to one side, her eyes half-drooping from the exhaustion, desperately hoping that Elsa wouldn't have anything else for her right now.

_What the heck have I gotten myself into?_

Elsa, who had been standing silently at the side watching her carry the slabs per her previous instructions, now came over and sat on the floor behind her, cupping her legs to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. It was potentially the only dry spot left for them; the rest was pretty wet from melting as Anna moved them from one side to the other. Anna felt miserable; her clothes, previously drenched from running, were now pretty much soaked from all the ice.

They remained like that for an untold length of time, Anna's breathing slowly returning to normal, feeling the sun's rays caress her skin and bring much needed warmth to the rest of her body. Silence loomed over the circle, with only Anna's raspy breathing puncturing the quiet.

"You should go change, you know," Elsa spoke up after a while, eyes still closed.

"Oh." Anna pushed herself into a sitting position, inwardly kicking herself for not thinking of that earlier. "Oops, I guess. I just thought you might have other things planned out after this."

"Nah, you're not doing anything intensive in this state, especially if you're still soaked. Get changed before you catch a cold. Tell me when you're done."

_That was… nice, I guess?_ Anna got to her feet, realizing she had absolutely no idea what to expect from this "training", walking off back to her room. She decided that she needed a shower, a hot one for that matter, and desperately so. Glad for a break, she grabbed a spare change of clothes without even bothering to look if they matched, and rushed back out to the showers.

When she came out, feeling somewhat more refreshed, Elsa was sitting cross-legged upon the floor, eyes closed, breathing shallow and even. Anna cocked an eyebrow. This was the part where she would awkwardly wait around for Elsa to give her more instructions, she decided. Elsa was so quiet, it made her scared to move across the floor just to put her clothes back for fear of disturbing the meditative stance she had assumed. _You're only walking,_ she reasoned to herself. _It shouldn't affect her _that _much._

_But what if she gets mad at me—_

She caught herself on that thought, and then, taking a deep breath, walked across the compound towards her room. Anna had no idea why she felt it was important not to anger Elsa, but something was gnawing at her, as if perpetually warning her to be on her toes. _She's the one training you, _Anna thought. _It's probably not good to anger her, else this entire week is going to suck. And a bunch of other reasons I suppose…_

What those reasons were, she could not possibly fathom.

She dumped her used-clothes in the laundry chute connected to her room, then stepped outside, cringing as the door slid closed a little louder than she would have liked. Luckily, Elsa didn't stir.

Her heart rate sped up a little; it did that when she was nervous, or had no particular idea what course of action she should be taking next. She stood there awkwardly, trying to figure out something.

So eventually, after standing there watching the sun dry the water on floor (though she realized that counted as generally doing absolutely nothing), she decided to plop herself right next to Elsa. She leaned forward to glance at Elsa's face; it remained motionless and unchanged, seemingly oblivious to her movements. Was she asleep? Anna couldn't tell, so she exhaled deeply but silently, and attempted to imitate the position Elsa had assumed: cross-legged on the floor, palms flat upon her knees, eyes closed.

She got about five seconds into that position before Elsa spoke up. "What are you doing?"

"I'm… I'm meditating, like… like you are." _Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit, this is so awkward…_

A pause. "Not really," Elsa said, not having moved a single inch. "Your breathing is far too quick, and you're still fidgeting a lot. You appear to have something troubling you."

_How the—?_ "N…nah," Anna attempted to cover for herself, astounded at how Elsa knew so much about her, "I'm just… tired from the exertion, I guess." She let out a nervous laugh. _Is there anything this… girl… doesn't know?_

Elsa shrugged, and her eyes opened. "You feeling better?"

"I guess," Anna replied.

"Good. That was just a warm-up."

Anna eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"Yes. There's no way we're done yet. What did you expect?" Elsa pushed herself to her feet as she spoke. "Rise. Turn to face me, and assume your fighting stance."

Anna stood up with Elsa, falling silent, once again confused. "I don't quite know what that is…"

She watched Elsa consider this. "You're right," came the response, "you really don't know what a fighting stance is. Forget it; I need you to play along."

"Okay… and how should I do this?"

"Block every attack I deliver."

She gulped. "Doesn't this seem a little too… you know… fast?"

Anna didn't even register Elsa's leg lashing out and catching her straight in the chest, knocking her a good few feet away. She crashed into the ground, sliding along the smooth marble floor of the compound on her back, gasping for air. She looked back at Elsa, who stood on one leg, curling the other one upwards, hands in a defensive position.

_God she looks good like that._

_Wait. _

_What?!_

"You let your guard down," Elsa noted, maintaining her pose with ease and relatively little sway. Anna's eyes trailed over Elsa's slim, toned figure, watching the ways her muscles clenched and tightened to keep her balanced, how tight fabric trailed over Elsa's bodily curves. "Never let your guard down."

_Heck, this training just got a whole lot more worth it._ Anna found herself blushing as she rose to her feet. _Dammit, Anna, you need to focus. Don't be… distracted, as good and appealing as that distraction might be._ Wincing at the pain on her back, she assumed the best possible fighting stance she could muster: both hands in a boxer-like position, shifting her weight from left to right somewhat pretentiously. She still had no idea what she was supposed to do, but right now, looking at Elsa seemed a tad more appealing.

"As much as your guard isn't down right now," Elsa said, now lowering her leg to the floor and assuming her fighting stance, "I doubt that stance will help much."

_I think I could live with that, _Anna thought, smiling even as her vision was engulfed by a blur of movement.

* * *

><p>This "regime" carried on for the next few days. The break was a week long, and had started on the Saturday on which the other recruits had left. Elsa had a full nine days to, in her own words, "get her into shape", though Anna wasn't sure she was going to be in shape to do anything after Elsa was done with her.<p>

And it wasn't just because Elsa was pushing her to the absolute limits of her physical capacity, leaving her bruised, battered and beaten after every day. Anna found herself becoming increasingly obsessed with her companion, in more ways than one. Particularly during the physical training; Anna loved to ask Elsa to demonstrate how to carry out a specific exercise under the pretense of "getting it as right as possible", when in reality she was just attracted to watching Elsa, clad in a potentially revealing singlet and training pants, execute the required exercise with ease and elegance. Eventually Anna realized she was pushing it, because Elsa grew ever more irritated with that.

"Sorry," she would meekly reply, "I'm not really good at this."

She received a stare in reply, but Anna would smile to herself as she got on with whatever exercise she was expected to be doing.

What Anna didn't anticipate from the training was the level of intensity. Elsa would coach Anna for hours on end, particularly on her hand-to-hand combat. "In the face of battle," Elsa would tell her incessantly every time Anna complained about the training she was receiving, "the last thing you can rely on is not your updated intelligence, nor your top-of-the-line weapon, but only yourself." Those were the times when her feelings about her 'trainer' bordered on resentment; Elsa would force her to fight with her bare hands, clearly to let her feel overwhelmed in the presence of a much superior opponent.

It would be an understatement for Anna to say that she was beginning to feel annoyed. Her hands eventually began to ache from all the exertion, especially since Elsa threw her way a long series of drills consisting of push- and pull-ups, "weight" lifting where she kept lifting ice blocks over and over again, and hand-to-to hand combat. With bruises for trophies and aching muscles for rewards, Anna could not have been happier when their training sessions ended in the evening; although the next day Elsa would not go easy on her just because the previous day had been tiring. The physical strain took its toll on Anna every day the training progressed, but the mental toll was something Anna was even more unprepared for.

After prolonged duration, Anna actually started to get angry; and she hardly got angry. She'd expected to get something better out of the break time that she'd had, to spend time with somewhat she had begun to be interested in, but they were now a full halfway into the lull of curriculum, and Elsa had let her slog away unrelentingly at physical exercise. She could sense it herself; her tone became more resentful, and her words were overflowing with spite and sarcasm.

"Why don't you try carrying these things for a change?" she blurted out once before she could stop herself while she was lifting the ice slabs again.

Wordlessly, Elsa walked over to the pile of ice slabs, picked up three at one go, and deposited them to the other side of the circle. Then she walked back to where she had previously been standing, and motioned for Anna to continue.

Anna realized that she was being an asshole, but the training made it hard for her to act otherwise, as much as she didn't like to be one. Perhaps worse of all, when she went back to whatever exercise she was supposed to be doing, the hurt was evident on Elsa's face.

And every day she'd go to sleep hating herself just a little bit more.

* * *

><p>Wednesday. Their break ended on the coming Sunday, and Anna woke up with the feeling that she wasn't going to have much of a "break" once again. She wanted to catch a few more minutes of sleep, given her heavy eyelids and aching body, but she was sure that Elsa was going to wake her up soon. There was no point delaying the inevitable.<p>

_Screw this_, she thought. _She'll wake me up. _Anna grabbed a fistful of her blanket and draped it over her head, leaving an opening for her to breathe the cool air of her room, and let the sensation drift her back to sleep.

Her dreams were fuzzy. It was likely due to her exhaustion from the previous few days, and she didn't even realise she was dreaming. Through the haze she sighted a serenely beautiful figure, standing motionless in the darkness that engulfed her, a white aura emanating from her body. Anna's gaze remained transfixed upon the image, mesmerized by the beauty of the sight. Her limbs felt like lead and she couldn't move, try as she might to advance towards the image.

_What the hell?_

She tried to discern additional details; platinum blonde hair, intense blue eyes, slim and toned physique, but that was all she could tell. The figure was adorned in a bluish gown, almost like it was made of ice entirely, but even in her dream-state Anna dismissed the notion as ludicrous. Most strikingly of all, she seemed to recognize the figure—

The image faded. The darkness engulfed her. Her eyelids stirred.

She was still in her room.

Anna relaxed, stretching out on her bed, relishing in the sensation of the pillow on her head.

_Wait, how long have I been asleep—_

Frantically she sprang from her bed, dread gripping at her as she slid into her clothing; sleeping naked did nothing to improve the time she took to get up. Her mind ran the words _shit shit shit_ over and over as she practically flew over to the door, hit the release and stumbled outside.

Elsa was sitting in the circle outside their rooms, back in her meditative stance. Beside her was the datapad she'd been using for the past few days, on top of a pile of papers and other materials Anna couldn't make out from where she stood. _Fuck, she is so gonna kill me for being late—_

"You're up?" came Elsa's voice, her body not moving.

"Y..yeah.."

Elsa's eyes opened, revealing the intense blue irises that lay within. Anna felt a sense of déjà vu strike her as Elsa rose: _is she the figure… in my dream? Can it really be—_

"Fighting stance."

"Wha… what?" Anna snapped out of her reverie, now somewhat flushed. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention—"

"Fighting stance. Assume your fighting stance."

Inwardly she groaned; this would be no different from all the previous days of training, albeit the minor concession Elsa was willing to make about Anna's dearth of punctuality. Silently she put one foot forward, one foot back, both hands raised vertically to anticipate a coming attack.

"Deflect my attacks."

Elsa's first blow was swift, but manageable; the blow came straight for her, which Anna deflected by swinging her left hand. She watched Elsa move with the force of being deflected, her other fist swinging in a wide arc. They'd rehearsed this so many times, Anna could even predict Elsa's next move.

So she put her right hand up to take the brunt of the blow, then ducked in anticipation of Elsa's overhead kick. It worked; Anna dodged under the swing entirely, and in a moment of genius and stupidity combined, Anna attempted to restrain Elsa by grabbing at the back of her white T-shirt. She grabbed the fabric, but failed to follow up, and the momentum carried Elsa's body forward. A ripping sound resounded through the air as Elsa braced her fall to the ground, throwing one hand over the front of her shirt to preserve her modesty.

_Oh. _

_Fuck._

Anna stood stock still for a few seconds as Elsa gasped from the unexpected turn of events, pushing herself up with one hand. Then her neural pathways lit up again after a period of inactivity, and she felt the dread rush back to her. "Oh my god," she blurted out, "I am so, so sorry for that! I didn't… I didn't know what I was thinking, I just thought maybe I could attempt to try a restraining maneuver, and that really didn't work out, gosh I am so sorry I am so—"

She stopped abruptly when she caught a smile widening on Elsa's face. For a moment she thought she heard a giggle. "It's okay," came the reply, the blonde ponytail draped over her head as Elsa regained her composure. "It's probably one of the best things I've seen you do thus far."

Anna pouted as she walked over to help Elsa up. Elsa shook her head, somewhat vigorously motioning for her to stay back. Anna didn't register the gesture, so she ended up walking towards Elsa anyway, but understood why almost immediately.

"Oh."

"…yeah," came Elsa's voice, now noticeably smaller and more timid. "No one's really seen that. Pretty much just you."

The pristine white skin that covered her back was now clearly visible, with one glaring exception; a patch of burned, scarred skin, bizarrely, in the pattern of what appeared to be a snowflake. Anna's gut twisted as she noted the charred areas, where the skin had attempted to heal repeatedly before being damaged again. _That must have hurt…_

"You get a good look?"

"Sorry!" she said, backing away quickly, not realizing she had been staring for quite a while. Anna berated herself as she watched Elsa get up, walking back towards her room, presumably to change. She cast another uncertain glance at the scar on Elsa's back, and questions flooded through her mind, even though she wasn't going to like the answers.

Anna didn't exactly consider that a good start to the day.


	8. Chapter 7

_Omega [REDUX]_

_Chapter 7_

"Do you mind if I ask what happened?"

Elsa hesitated to turn around.

"I mean," she heard Anna hastily continue, "I'll totally understand and if you're not comfortable with that, and you think I'm being an insensitive prick and whatnot…"

"No, no, it's fine. I understand that you're curious."

They were sitting in Anna's room; the sun had nearly gone down but they'd left her door open, where they'd been admiring the sunset whilst going through a set a materials Elsa had brought in. Elsa's mind was originally set on going into the tactical element of combat, but this question caught her completely off guard.

And she realized she had no idea what to say.

"Well," she began, frantically trying to think up her next course of action, "it's a long story, and it's really complicated."

Would she really want Anna to know about her past? How she had been bred as a superweapon, and had to be stolen from a transport container? The long and torturous rehabilitation and reconditioning process?

The people she had killed?

"I'll… tell you some other time," Elsa said, absolutely certain that the quivering in her voice gave her away completely. She felt obliged to tell Anna, and as much as she knew it was right to reject Anna's request for now, she didn't want to appear straight up defensive. "Sorry," she said quietly, as an afterthought.

"It's okay," came the reply. Elsa breathed a sigh of relief, glad to change to subject, but not wanting to see what kind of look lingered on Anna's face.

_Empyrean._

The voice was back again; she shut it out with a silent whisper of "Conceal, don't feel". Her resolve to quit that voice had only strengthened after the incident in the lecture room, even as the nightmarish memories came drifting back.

The sickening crack of bones, the searing heat of the irons, the inhuman screams of her victims.

Elsa shuddered.

"You okay?" Anna asked, her voice tinged with concern.

Elsa managed a nod reply, wordlessly scrolling through her datapad as she folded her legs on the floor. _Damn, is it that obvious?_ She thought that Anna would have been a tad more reluctant or afraid to interact with her, but so far nothing that would support that reached her enhanced hearing. _Thank god for that, I guess._

She brought up the file she was looking for and turned back to Anna, who was sitting above her on the bed. "Now that we've made progress with your physical conditioning, we'll focus on the tactical element. I still have to get you working on you aim tomorrow nonetheless." Elsa gave a half-stare, half-glare at Anna as she pouted. "It's necessary."

"I'm tired," Anna whined as she drew up the blankets to her neck, wrapping her arms around her legs. Elsa felt her cheeks tinge with heat as she looked at the freckles upon Anna's pouting expression, leaving a trace of confusion in her mind, even as she went back to the datapad.

"This is Eleanor Helenski, the best sniper from the United International Front," she said, passing the datapad to Anna. "Even more interestingly, she's also from Omega-Valkyrie from that time."

Anna cocked an eyebrow. "There was a Valkyrie squad then?"

"The UIF has been around for a very long time, just like this academy," Elsa remarked. "Valkyrie was one of the first squads to be formed for the testing of the simulator technology, and they decided to preserve the tradition. Apparently it was one of the best squads."

"Heh," Anna gave a bitter laugh as she leaned back into her pillow, "look where it is now."

Something stabbed at Elsa deep down in her chest, a strange mix pain and connection that she'd never felt before. She searched for the word to describe it just as she searched for an appropriate response. "Not your fault."

"Don't lie to me," Anna replied. "You know I'm pretty much the reason we're in this spot."

Elsa sighed. "I would contend that, but we'll never get to training if we did this."

She retrieved her holographic projector and hooked up her datapad to it, bringing up Eleanor Helenski's combat simulation records. "These are very old records of matches, but even then she was pretty good when she entered the academy. Not much has changed so you should find her tactics decently effective." She selected a particular recording from the archive and opened the file; the display came to life, reanimating the environment of the match alongside the players in their respecting spawns. Elsa widened the display so they could see the match well.

"What's her military service record?" Anna asked as they watched the recruits navigate the simulation.

"Enlisted in the academy in 2089 when she was 16, graduated with first class honours at 21, the fastest progression of grades the academy has ever seen." Elsa widened the display projection so they could focus on Helenski's perspective, watching as the recruit thumbed the safety on her ASR1 off. "Entered military service upon graduation, bestowed multiple awards and medals, including Medal of Valor for her actions in the Battle of the Brink."

"You're gonna have to slow down," came the reply. "I have no idea what's going on."

Elsa paused the display and turned to Anna. "The Battle of the Brink was a major Empyrean offensive onto the 7th Sector of UIF territory. Partly due to a strategic oversight on UIF command, they were distracted by a minor attack on the 6th Sector, and had redeployed additional forces there, leaving the particular city of New Harvard exposed, which was on the edge of UIF border walls, hence the name for the battle that took place. UIF forces defending its major military repair yards and manufacturing facilities ended up being woefully unprepared; Empyrean launched a massive attack on the city, even sending one of their three existing Command Carriers to facilitate the attack."

"How bad?"

"The first day saw half of the city taken, and combat was down to bitter street fighting after they neutralized all city defenses. You know how big our cities are."

Anna shuddered. "Ouch."

"Yeah," Elsa said, as she fiddled with the projection without looking directly at Anna; something about the freckles on Anna's cheeks was making her feel… weird. "If you go ask the lecturer that made me freak out that day he'll tell you more about it and more context." _Shit, now Anna's going to feel uncomfortable._

A brief pause passed between them, and Elsa averted her eyes.

"So…" she heard Anna speak, uncertainty dripping, "what did Helenski do?"

"Oh. Right. Almost forgot." Elsa forced herself to turn back and look straight at Anna. _Maybe if I confront those freckles directly, this… feeling should go away._ "Helenski and her squad were actually one of the soldiers garrisoned there, and remained in the captured half of the city isolated from the rest of the forces amassing in the UIF controlled portion. The footage from her suit that was uploaded to the UIF database showed them eliminating enemy squads and scavenging their ammunition and supplies as they came along."

"Kill count?"

"For her alone? 264. The five-man squad racked up a total of 1300."

Anna looked incredulous. "They bothered to count?"

"Analysts did it when they retrieved the footage."

"That's one hell of a kill-to-death ratio; even the Alpha divisions here can't beat that."

Elsa gave a small smile as she continued. "Unfortunately they started taking losses. The Battle of the Brink lasted a full 2 months; in one month Helenski was alone. For the next duration she continued the routine, though analysts later determined she suffered psychological trauma from the events. It was deliberated that it was this trauma that compelled her to undertake that specific course of action."

"I don't follow."

"She sniped the driver out of an attack hovercraft, then hijacked it and flew to its assigned vehicle carrier. Having infiltrated the carrier, she accessed its onboard systems, remotely programming itself and its entire vehicle payload on a crash course with the Command Carrier."

"Shit." Anna looked genuinely taken aback. "What happened to her?"

"Her body was never found, since the resulting explosion from the destroyed Command Cruiser took out the captured half of New Harvard and forced the UIF forces to evacuate for fear of radiation poisoning. The area is now cordoned off; neither the UIF nor Empyrean are using it now, except to fight for the border. The medal was awarded to Helenski posthumously."

"Oh." Anna looked crestfallen. "I'd hoped she'd make it."

"Yeah, but the odds were kind of stacked against her survival."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you asked," Elsa said nonchalantly, turning back towards the display, almost completely forgetting she was supposed to teach her combat tactics. "And just to assure you everything will turn out fine."

"You… do realise she died, right?" Anna pointed out.

"We all die. I was trying to emphasise that she graduated, despite the odds stacked against her."

Elsa didn't get a response from Anna, so she played the match recording again.

The night sky above them filled with stars as Elsa continued explaining the various tactics of sniping and counter-sniping, with reference to Helenski's various performances as reference. Eventually Elsa had to sit next to Anna, both lying back onto a pillow, because her back was starting to ache. Amidst the strange glow of the projection in their room Elsa kept Anna going at the topic until late into the night.

Elsa was in the midst of scrolling through more of Helenski's performance when she felt a weight suddenly striker her shoulder. She almost jumped; then she realized Anna had dozed off when she caught side of her signature red hair trailing down her shoulder. With a sigh, Elsa turned off the projector, finding a smile forming involuntarily on her face.

After that came a very essential question: what to do next? She couldn't move out of the room simply because Anna looked too serenely asleep to be awoken. Elsa laid back and let Anna rest on her shoulder as she contemplated the events of the day.

She looked at the freckles that covered Anna's rosy cheeks. It didn't work; she still felt the same way as she did hours ago: tingly, warm and fuzzy inside. It made her heart pound and her skin sweat, and Elsa didn't exactly like dealing with something she didn't understand. One particular image of her laying kisses all over those rosy cheeks suddenly embedded itself in her mind.

_Is it just me, or is it hot in here?_ Elsa still had no idea what to make of all this.

Eventually she laid back, having decided to close her eyes for a while. Before she knew it sleep overcame her.

* * *

><p>Anna's eyes opened only after she had this hazy vision of someone cradling her head and putting it back down on her pillow. Her room was dark again, but she could still hear footsteps trailing away. <em>Elsa?<em> She couldn't really remember how she ended up asleep, other than the fact that they'd stayed up late at night to study Helenski's performance in the simulations.

_Elsa._

Her name floated through Anna's head dreamily, just like the sleep that was about to overtake her. Eyes half-closed, she saw Elsa's intense blue irises, the combat fatigues that clung to her body to enunciate her curves, involuntarily prompting an image of them sliding off to reveal the pristine skin below, amongst other things for Anna to see…

Anna forced herself out of it, suddenly aware of her labored breathing, and how hot she'd become under the covers, which she promptly threw off. She found a layer of sweat covering her skin as she placed a shaking hand onto her chest, feeling the wild beating of her heart.

She felt her cheeks colour as she realized her nipples were hard.

Almost as an instinct she attempted to cover herself as shame washed over her, reaching for the blankets she had thrown away prior. This feeling was… unexpectedly pleasurable, but strangest of all was the source of the sensation. _Elsa._ She was familiar with crushes, although they'd been about boys and nothing had ever materialized out of the short term feelings she had harboured, but this was certainly different. Very, very different.

To begin with, Elsa was a girl.

Even as she processed these strange thoughts her hand slipped under her pyjama bottoms involuntarily. Her mind blanked out at the first contact her fingertip made with herself, her eyes closed in bliss. Her heart thudded as she panicked over how wrong it might be to fantasize over a girl, let alone her teammate that was committed to training her, but then she ran her middle finger along the full length of her slit and her breath hitched.

She almost failed to contain her reactionary moan. _God, why the hell am I doing this—?_

Another image of Elsa floated through her mind as she kept up her ministrations. Elsa's gorgeous lips on hers, their bodies pressed tightly together under the covers as she gazed back into the intense blue irises. In her mind her own fingers became Elsa's fingers that grazed past her slick folds into her inner channel, eliciting waves of pleasure that rippled through her bodice, wiping out all resistance she previously had. She clamped her mouth shut as she came, curling up involuntarily as she fought the urge to cry out in ecstasy, her other hand fondling her breasts greedily to experience ever more pleasure.

Satisfied as she was, she could barely control the torrent of emotions that welled up after that. Her heart rate gradually slowed down, but every beat pounded with feelings for her teammate. There'd been talk of homosexuality in the campus, but in general all relationships between recruits had been severely discouraged by the campus authorities.

Anna realized she was alone on this one; she couldn't tell anyone, not even her other teammates, not even the General who'd taken her in. But as she fought to catch her breath and sweat rolled down her cheeks one more image of her kissing Elsa, their hands roaming across each other's bodies floated through her mind, and she almost forgot all her worries.

_Why do I feel like this?_

The most terrifying part, she realized, was that she wasn't even sure Elsa reciprocated her feelings. What if it was all a one-sided attraction? What if Elsa found her weird, unnecessarily nosey and too clumsy to behold? Anna laid back into her pillow, shut her eyes, and tried to close off the stream of self doubt that she'd opened.

Sobering thoughts to counter the high she'd just been on.


	9. Chapter 8

_Omega [REDUX]_

_Chapter 8_

Break ended.

Elsa's routine shifted back to normal, only now she woke up with a sense of… she still didn't know.

But whenever she got up and looked at Anna that feeling would fill her again. She wasn't sure if it was due to her completing whatever training Elsa had assigned her, and probably made some improvements. Anna's better aim or physique or stamina had nothing to do with what Elsa was feeling. Or did it? She still had no clue.

She did however, notice the shift in Anna when the team reunited. She stood up straighter, seemed more confident as she embraced her teammates. Her chest puffed out as she related their escapades over the break.

Elsa refused to let herself continue to think about Anna's chest in other ways. But she couldn't help it. It was the other reason why she'd let Anna off on the last two days, with the excuse of "You do need a break after all." When Anna settled down for an afternoon nap she'd creep to the library to investigate what she was feeling. Attraction? Emotional bond? Sexual… lust?

She'd found herself blushing a little whenever Anna smiled at her, yet somewhat bitter when the rest of the team engaged in conversation with Anna. Jealousy? This emotion was new. She'd gone back to her list of emotions at night and jotted it down, alongside _anger, fear, resentment, grief, apathy, helplessness, humor, joy._

It was laughable, she decided, that she was so un-human that she had to actually write down her feelings one by one, and still be able to count them off the tips of her fingers. She'd deliberately excluded herself from the team as they went to tell each other stories and laugh around the circle outside their rooms, locking herself inside to contemplate the recent turn of events. To hide the fact that she was, ultimately, still broken. She curled up into a ball.

The night went on. Eventually the voices faded, but she could still tell each every individual voice apart; such was her conditioning to noticing things that normal people wouldn't. She could tell the exact moment where Rapunzel _decided_ to leave by her breathing patterns, when Belle walked off silently to catch some sleep. When Anna and Merida stayed up to converse more. And how she would never fit in with them. Fit in with anyone.

_Empyrean._

The bloodied faces of men, women and children resurfaced in her mind. She shuddered; it was one of those sleepless nights again, where shutting her eyes would do little to drive the image away. The nights where the guilt would consume her being and throw her back into racking sobs that she dreaded to go through, where she'd beg for the cowardly escape of death as she leaned into the corner where her bed sat, hugging her legs to herself and wrapping the blanket around her. The nights where even a supersoldier found her only physiology working against her, the sight of darkness becoming blinding, the sound of silence becoming deafening, the touch of the blanket agonizing—

There was a knock on the door.

Elsa snapped out of her reverie, though woefully unresponsive. The knock came again. "Who is it?"

"Me!" _Anna._ Her voice washed through half the pain that clutched at Elsa, who almost immediately found it easier to breathe. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," Elsa replied, barely loud enough as she sat unmoving in the corner, still processing what was happening. _She makes everything so easy—_

"You kinda have to let me in, you realise…"

_Fuck. That was a massive faux pas. _"Sorry!" she blurted out as she reached for the door release. The button clicked, and the door slid open.

The sight of Anna took her breath away.

She didn't know why she reacted to that sight at that moment in particular. Maybe it was because her red hair was let down, flaying out behind her. Maybe it was because of the radiant smile on her face, her freckles accentuated by her expression. Maybe it was because the combat fatigues she donned brought out the curves on her body… _no, what the hell Elsa? She's your goddamn teammate. You're supposed to help her pass the tests, not burden her with your miserable existence!_

"Sorry, I just couldn't sleep, and it was probably a long shot for me to ask if you were awake anyway," Anna said as she trod into Elsa's room, closing the door behind her. "Mind if I sit?" she asked, indicating to the chair in front of Elsa's desk.

"Sit anywhere you want."

"Even the bed?"

"Sure."

"Can I snuggle with you?"

Elsa raised an eyebrow. In truth, she had no idea what that was. "Err… what?"

"Like, I lie next to you in bed."

She felt her heart rate jump. Hell, she could feel her heart itself jump. "I… I er… I mean…"

"Sorry," Anna said quickly, looking away bashfully, "I probably went too far—"

"I don't mind," Elsa replied equally quickly, looking straight at Anna, one half of her screaming inwardly for agreeing, the other half trying to convince herself otherwise before she lost control entirely. _Those lips—_

"Great!" Anna squealed delightedly, and practically jumped into bed with Elsa, trying to maneuver as close towards her as possible. Elsa felt a knee connect with her ribs, and she recoiled, half in shock, half because it was ticklish. "Sorry!" Anna's eyes widened as she noticed the movement, "Are you okay?"

Elsa gave back a smile, a genuine smile, and said, "Yeah. I'm good."

They lay down in that position, Anna's head lying on Elsa's shoulder, her red hair mixed in with Elsa's own blonde hair. Silence hung over them like a cloud, neither daring to breathe for a while, Elsa herself a little intimidated by the intimacy of the contact. _This is ridiculous,_ she found herself thinking. _You're trained and bred to be close to fearless, and you still can't deal with this absolutely gorgeous girl taking a rest on your shoulder._ She found her hands fiddling with the covers.

"This is nice," Anna remarked softly as she nuzzled her head into Elsa's neck, the contact sending jolts of electricity crackling along her skin. Elsa swallowed. She was defenseless, and she never liked feeling that way.

"Yeah. It is."

"I never got to thank you."

Elsa rested her face on the top of Anna's head as they leaned against each other, savouring the smooth feeling of her signature red hair. "For what?"

"You know, training me, during the break."

"Least I could do."

"Not really." Anna pushed herself up and looked straight at Elsa. "I know a lot of people who wouldn't do that. Or even think I could… you know, improve."

Elsa could hear the insecurity in her voice, because it got softer and smaller towards the end. "They don't matter, Anna. What matters is what you do."

"But doesn't it get to you?" Anna averted her gaze, a helpless edge in her words as she leaned against Elsa again. "Like, what they say." She exhaled deeply, and Elsa heard the pain in that gesture. "So much for words will never hurt me."

_It's that feeling again. I still don't what to feel, but I need to do something, I can't let her keep feeling this way…_

"Like I said, it doesn't matter," Elsa found herself saying, with a reassuring tone she hadn't realized she had, but it felt right to say. "I've talked to the people that know you, your teammates, the other recruits that talk to you personally. They know you want to learn, to improve. That you're nice to be with, that you harbor no ill-will or malice, that you want to help others."

She found herself taking a breath as she continued. "People can say anything they want even if the truth is right in front of them. But no matter what, the truth will out. What matters is that you stay true to yourself, and true to what you do. Don't ever lose sight of that. Stick to your values, and people will know who you really are." _It's probably not quite appropriate for these words to come from someone who murdered innocent civilians in cold blood. I'm no saint, Anna. You on the other hand, just might be one._

They lay there just a while longer. For a moment, Elsa thought Anna might have fallen asleep in that position. Her own beating heart calmed down, though she thought she'd messed up her entire "inspiring speech", and come off as a bore.

Then she heard a small voice whisper "Thanks." She looked down to see a small smile on Anna's face, her serene features accompanied with smooth, even breathing. _Well, I guess now she's asleep._

Elsa herself leaned back and tried to get comfortable. She'd given up trying to calm down; Anna's freckles would probably drive her crazy forever.

* * *

><p>She awoke to the beeping of something familiar, but in her hazy state she couldn't quite place her finger on. Her fingers however seemed to be preoccupied, intertwined somehow, with something warm. She gazed down. Anna's hand rested in her palm, fingers laced between her own.<p>

Her heart beat just a little faster. Elsa sighed and laid back against the pillow, hoping to drift back to sleep, fully aware that such a possibility was highly unlikely.

The beep came again.

_Wait… that's the notification sound from a school-verified message…_ Gingerly extracting her fingers from Anna's she pushed herself off the bed and towards her table, squinting as she brought up the holographic display. She was right; it was a notification.

**INTER-DIVISION MATCH 45673488**

_**Alpha: **__[__VALOR – HALBERD – VALKYRIE__] _VS **Beta:** [_VIGILANCE – HARBINGER – SLEDGEHAMMER]_

MATCHTYPE: _DATA RECOVERY_

ARENA: _URBAN-3_

MATCH STARTS **0800**

_What the hell? _Elsa cast a glance at the top left of the projection; the time read 0730. Her eyes widened. _When the hell did we get this alert?_

"Wake up." She tried to shake Anna awake, albeit somewhat hastily. The redhead merely whined and tried to turn away. "Anna," Elsa began, an edge of steel in her voice now, "we're late. We have a match."

"Wha… what the fuck?" Anna sprang from her bed, red hair a mess of frizzy lines. "When and how and why and what and—"

"Calm down!" Elsa said, grabbing Anna's shoulders to keep her still. "I don't know why we got this alert this late, but we're going to have to get there. Go wake up the others; I'll plan a brief strategy."

Breathlessly Anna rushed out, slamming the door open button as Elsa sat down, all other thoughts instantly departing her mind, her mental state focusing into a single potent train of thought. She brought up the map from the academy database and scanned the small render of the map. Urban-3 wasn't an arena, it was basically a complete rendering of a city. There was no way she could plan for every single thing just by looking at the map render.

She swore under her breath as she left for the washroom, fully aware of the clock ticking towards their deadline.

* * *

><p>She caught sight of the insignia of Valor Team even before they reached the congregation of recruits at the simulation room. That was a concern, because Elsa realized that she didn't see Halberd Team anywhere. Her own team was still a partial mess: Belle had a shirt inside out, Merida was fumbling with a datapad as she rushed to finalise her loadout per Elsa's instructions, and Rapunzel's hair was out of control. Notably though, Anna had been able to settle her own issues decently. She appeared prim and proper, no doubt due to the training she had received. But Elsa wasn't about to pat herself on the back yet if one of their teams wasn't going to show up.<p>

"Valkyrie." Hans gave them a curt nod as they fell into position next to Valor, looking down at his datapad. Elsa noted the direction his eyes were pointed in: specifically at the top left of his screen. Evidently, Halberd just ran out of time.

"At ease, recruits," Hans said. Team Beta looked visibly relaxed. Anna, on the other hand, did not, and Elsa knew why: the smile on Ursula's face as she fought to urge to smirk at Anna. "It appears that Halberd didn't make it. As such, the exercise will proceed without them."

Elsa watched the members of Valor Team fight the urge to protest. Discreetly, she laid a hand on Anna's back and whispered, "It's gonna be fine. We've trained you for this. You'll be okay." She'd briefed the team on the way about what they had to do, assuming that Valor Team had come equally unprepared as they had.

Anna gave her a small, timid nod in return.

"Proceed to your simulators, recruits," Hans continued. "Do remember this cross-division match is not a formative; your performance in this match will count towards your overall proficiency evaluation at the end of the term. Good luck."

* * *

><p>Elsa had expected to wake up in some part of the city, lying on the ground as per usual, with her weapons next to her in a heap.<p>

She didn't. The first thing she noticed was the tight feeling of straps around her bodice. Her mind raced. Was she restrained? Did her opponents find her before she woke up, and planned to use her as leverage? She struggled to open her eyes, trying to get the annoying whirring sound out her ears—

_That doesn't sound like whirring, that sounds like we're… airborne…_

She forced open her eyes. She was in a troop hold of a dropship.

_Shit._

"Recruits! Wakey wakey!"

Elsa moved her hands. Her ASR2-M designated marksman rifle sat strapped to her back, and she felt the familiar weight of the T2 sidearm sitting in the holster attached to her thigh. Her HUD initialized and began a system scan. She took stock of her body armor: lightweight Pathfinder armor, thin enough for maximum mobility but thick enough for decent protection, with standard issue jet brakes and minimal energy shielding. A knife was attached to her upper body armor, and she felt the weight of magazines weighing her down. "Time to get up and prepare to burn-in."

"Fucking pilot," Belle said.

"Alright guys," a voice from Valor team cut into their comms, "We've got no time to refer to introductions, so just abide by the names you display on your soldier tag. I'm assuming Valkyrie's soldier tags are your real names?"

"Get on with it," Merida said. "If you've got no time to introduce each other, then don't waste time laughing at our fuck ups."

"Very well," the voice named Blackcomb said, but Elsa could tell he was stifling a giggle, prompting her to roll her eyes. "Here's the plan. Valkyrie will breach the area while we provide cover. Simple as that."

"Simple as that?" Elsa retorted. "That suicide! You'll kill us!"

"If you die, we'll move in to mop up."

"It doesn't matter that we get taken out?"

"Look, we're the Alpha division here. I don't want to be too blunt, princess," Blackcomb replied, "but I think we're more qualified to make the decisions here."

"So that's your grand plan? Sending a Delta Division team in as bait, so you can take them out yourself?"

Blackcomb didn't respond. "No way, man," Elsa continued, glaring at the suit-clad recruit. "We've got our own evaluation to worry about. If you don't have a better plan, you selfish fucks, we're going our own way."

"You'll get killed," a recruit named Venus interrupted. "We're your best shot of winning."

"We're already a team short," Anna said all of a sudden. "How bad could it be? Now shut up, suit up and prepare to drop."

The light on the side of the dropship hold lit up with a red glow. Making sure everything was still attached, Elsa unstrapped herself from the seat, checking that her jet brakes were online in the same movement. Their teams stood in two straight lines, facing the back of the hold as the ramp began to deploy.

Even in the suit, Elsa could still feel the air rush past her skin. The light flipped to green. "Go, go, go!" came the pilot.

Two by two the soldiers ran outward, down the ramp, then into a freefall.

Elsa felt her legs leave the ramp, and into gravity's deadly embrace. "Follow my lead!" she yelled towards her team on their comm channel. "Do exactly as I do. We're leaving these fuckers behind." She stretched her limbs out behind her, streamlining her body shape and encouraging a faster freefall; her HUD's display indicated that her teammates were keeping up just nicely.

"Valkyrie," came Blackcomb's warning, disapproving tone. "You're going in too fast!"

Elsa muted Blackcomb's comm channel.

Her energy shields flared as the heat around her began to accumulate, plunging through the cloud layer. Her HUD's altitude indicator dropped radically, numbers ticking past as the vertigo got to her. Elsa shook her head and tried to clear the feeling, and continued her decent.

"Are you sure about this?" came Merida as they zipped right past the recommended braking altitude.

"Just do it!" She could feel her heart race as the waypoint for their data came into view; they were dangerously close to the ground. They were low enough for her suit to begin to identify hostile targets, that were completely oblivious to what was happening above.

_500 metres. _

"Mark your targets and aim for them!" she called out.

_300 metres._

Elsa maneuvered her body to directly above the recruit, eyes narrowing with focus.

_100 metres._

"NOW!"

Elsa popped her jet brakes, the retro-rockets firing and struggling to stop her terminal velocity, but that was exactly what she was aiming for. As her enemy below her turned upwards to locate the source of the sound Elsa's entire weight slammed into him, the additional force accumulated during her fall crushing his armor and piercing his body as they both crashed through the first layer of concrete, then the second, then came to a standstill on the third, but not before leaving a huge crater on its surface. Her plan was successful. 5 enemy soldiers immediately disappeared off the simulation, and the odds were now even.

"Move!" she hollered as hostile enemy fire zipped past her, her own legs pushing her body towards cover, her hands reaching for her rifle. She slammed a magazine into the chamber, and prepared for their counterattack.


End file.
